An escort guard was, by nature, someone who made a living with his body. Which meant he knew the body well.
And that also meant he knew exactly which spots hurt the most when struck.
Escort Guard Seo Wu didn’t stop after a single kick.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He drove his foot into the man’s shin three more times with perfect precision, and every single time, the sound of breaking bone rang out.
Crack! Snap! Crunch!
As a result, the physician was in so much pain that foam frothed at his mouth and he wet himself.
Every spot Escort Guard Seo Wu had kicked was a vicious pain point.
Watching that, I had a feeling the physician who had deceived Escort Guard Seo Wu and Lady Hong Geum-so hadn’t met a very pleasant end either.
Escort Guard Seo Wu saluted me with cupped fists, then stepped back.
“Thank you for allowing me that personal indulgence.”
“It’s fine. I understand.”
It saved me the trouble of doing it myself, after all.
“So then, where are the others?”
“I, I don’t know.”
“So not ‘there aren’t any,’ but ‘I don’t know’? That means there are others.”
“…!”
“You’ve got two legs. And two arms too.”
“That’s obvious—”
“Most people would’ve talked immediately just to avoid that kind of pain. I didn’t realize you had a hobby like enjoying it.”
The moment he caught my meaning, he hurriedly shouted,
“I, I’ll talk! I’ll tell you! Ugh— I said I’ll talk!”
That made it clear all over again just how painful Escort Guard Seo Wu’s handiwork had been.
The physician spilled the others’ whereabouts without much resistance.
The name of their organization was the Hidden Sand Assassins.
It meant they hid like sand – and carried the confidence, and the mockery, that no one would ever find them easily.
If they’d managed to keep the organization going for decades, I supposed they had reason to be proud.
Not that it mattered. In my previous life, the Emperor had exposed every last one of them.
And now they were getting stripped bare by me instead.
There were a little over fifty of them, and their main base was in Nanjing.
Nanjing… that works out nicely.
I glanced at the Archer God.
Now that he understood this was bigger than he’d expected, he was biting his lip.
He’d realized this wasn’t something he could handle alone.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and dropped to one knee before me.
“Please help me.”
“What?”
“I can’t forgive the people who did that to my father… and tried to drag me into the Unorthodox Sect.”
“So you want revenge.”
“Yes. But I… don’t have the power.”
His eyes shone as he pleaded with me.
“So please lend me your strength. Help me take revenge on them.”
I quietly looked at him, then asked,
“If I lend you my strength, what will you give me in return?”
“What?”
“You’re not asking me to do this for free, are you? I told you before that I’m a merchant. I like things to be clear when something is given and something is taken.”
At my words, he hesitated, then said,
“The only thing I have is my skill with a bow. If that is acceptable to you, then I offer you that skill.”
Before I could even suggest it, he offered up his own talent first.
Well, asking the physician about the size of their group really paid off.
“But what about your father? Are you sure you can make that decision without asking him first?”
“You saved my father’s life, and you kept my Clan’s name from being stained. The father I know would support this decision.”
“Very well. Just don’t regret it.”
“I won’t.”
“Then we’ll write the contract later…”
I turned my head toward the fraudulent physician and coldly said,
“Now then, tell us everything. Every assassination the Hidden Sand Assassins have carried out up to now. And who ordered the hit on Lord Ak as well.”
“A, assassinations? What are you even— Is it really right to slander an innocent man like this?”
“Haa…”
I let out a sigh.
“You harmed this Young Lord’s family, and you’re still going to insist you’re innocent?”
“…Damn it.”
“And do you remember the question that Young Lord asked you earlier? How do you think he could still be here? If he’d actually fired that arrow at Lord Ak, he’d be in a prison cell right now, not standing here.”
“…”
I answered with a smile.
“I stopped him. And I took down the bastard watching him from the sidelines too.”
Then I turned to my escort guards.
“Bring him in.”
“Yes!”
They dragged in the man they’d knocked unconscious and threw him down in the yard.
“So even if you refuse to answer, there’s someone else here who can. Which means there’s a reason I’m telling you this.”
Then I smiled and walked toward the fraudulent physician.
“So you enjoy pain, huh? Fine. We’ll indulge you. Escort Guard Seo Wu.”
“Yes!”
“There’s still one leg and both arms left. Plenty of places where a few broken bones won’t kill him.”
“I was already itching to tear all four limbs apart, so thank you.”
“You sons of bitches! What the hell did I do that was so wrong?! I was just trying to survive too!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Then you shouldn’t have made other people cry tears of blood.”
“Aaaaagh! You fucking bastards!”
“Ah, I should probably seal his throat acupoint. There’s some dog barking somewhere, and it’s getting annoying.”
“Understood.”
I said to the fraudulent physician,
“So if you decide you feel like confessing everything, nod as hard as you can.”
To be honest, Bone-Twisting Tendon-Shattering was more effective, but that technique required a fairly delicate level of inner Qi control.
One mistake and the target could die, so it demanded absolute concentration too.
That was why I only used it when blood absolutely couldn’t be spilled. Then again, there were endless other ways to inflict pain.
This really does make me sound like a villain.
But who cares?
As long as I’m not maliciously bleeding innocent people dry, that’s enough for me.
The moment Escort Guard Seo Wu started grinding down the fraudulent physician’s right arm bit by bit, the man frantically nodded his head.
Right. I already knew he wouldn’t hold out long.
If this was how it was going to end anyway, why bother acting tough in the first place…?
Still, I pretended not to notice and only released his throat acupoint after his entire right arm had been thoroughly crushed.
I needed to break his will completely.
That way, he’d spill everything without hiding a thing.
“Huff, huff, you bastards… I’ll talk… I said I’ll talk…”
“You still don’t seem to understand your situation.”
When I moved to call Escort Guard Seo Wu again, he desperately begged,
“N, no! Please let me speak! I’m begging you!”
“Palgap.”
“Yes! You called for me?”
“Get brush, ink, and paper. Be ready to write.”
“Understood!”
Palgap got everything ready in a flash.
I had no idea whether they’d kept it around for decoration or actual use, but there happened to be brush, ink, and paper on hand.
“Then let’s start with the most recent assassination, shall we?”
And just like that, the fraudulent physician spilled every last incident he could remember.
“Th, that’s all of it.”
“Good. Wake that one up, then.”
“Understood.”
While the escort guards splashed water on the other man to wake him, I said to the fraudulent physician,
“Do you know what cross-checking is?”
“…?”
“It means listening to multiple people and finding the inconsistencies. And I really dislike uncertainty.”
I looked at the man sputtering awake after the dousing and said,
“If I question him and find out you left anything out, I’ll grind your other arm to pieces too.”
“Hrk! W, wait…”
“No useless chatter.”
I immediately sealed his throat acupoint again.
He screamed soundlessly, but it was already too late.
That’s what happens when you waste the chance you’re given.
Then I turned to the man who had ordered the Archer God around and said,
“You see that over there, right?”
He swallowed hard, his face tense as he stared at the fraudulent physician – pinned down, skewered through the limbs with arrows, and already reduced to a wreck.
Thud!
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am stabbed his sword into the man’s thigh, then twisted it.
“Aaaaagh!”
At a glance from me, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am pulled the sword back out and stopped the bleeding by pressing his pressure point.
“The pain you’re feeling now isn’t even one-tenth of what that physician suffered.”
And it doesn’t come close to one-hundredth of what the Archer God and his father went through either.
“Wh… what do you want?”
Maybe because he’d seen what had become of the already-ruined physician, he gave up without much resistance.
I picked up the pages Palgap had written and said,
“I’ll read this aloud, and if you hear anything wrong, speak up. Every correction you make will shave seven and a half minutes off your suffering.”
“I’ll do my utmost.”
The look in his eyes when he said it was almost solemn.
“Three years ago, you carried out the murder of the Manor Lord of Gyeong Family Manor in Jiangsu Province. It says it was a clean job where only the Manor Lord was killed…”
“That’s not right. His seven-year-old grandson saw what happened, so we killed him too.”
“…”
He corrected the errors with complete sincerity.
Meanwhile, the fraudulent physician watching this unfold was turning paler by the second.
At this point, maybe he really did enjoy pain.
.
.
.
A little while later.
I headed for an estate in Shandong.
Behind me, two members of the Hidden Sand Assassins were being dragged along by my escort guards.
“Who goes there? This is where Provincial Commander Ak resides!”
The guards at the front of the estate blocked our way.
“I know. Would you deliver this to Lord Ak for me?”
What I handed over was the Imperial Decree the Emperor had given me.
The one that granted priority in handling any matter connected to me.
“What is this?”
They tilted their heads and all but snatched the scroll from my hand.
“Ah, careful! That was issued by His Majesty the Emperor.”
“What?”
The white silk wrapped around the scroll came loose, revealing what was inside.
I’d deliberately tied it loosely.
The moment they saw the red and gold splendor that marked it as an Imperial Decree, their hands started trembling.
Even if the decree wasn’t meant for them personally, handling it one-handed and arrogantly, like they had just done after taking it from me, was the kind of thing that could get them hauled off for sacrilege without a word of protest.
“C, couldn’t you have told us that sooner?”
“I was trying to. You took it before I could.”
“…”
“If Lord Ak were to hear about this…”
“Gah!”
“I’m asking as a favor. Please keep it secret.”
“Keep it… secret?”
“Please.”
“Well, you did it without knowing, and it’s not like I have some hobby where I enjoy watching people suffer.”
At that, I heard Palgap sigh behind me.
Huh? What was that supposed to mean?
Thanks to that little incident, the guards immediately dropped their overbearing attitude and started treating me carefully.
Not only had they handed me leverage over them, but the fact that I was carrying an Imperial Decree made it obvious I wasn’t someone of ordinary standing.
Soon, the guard who had gone inside returned and respectfully said,
“Please, come in. But what about them?”
They were looking at the members of the assassin group I’d brought with me, and I answered,
“Lock them in the prison cells. They’re members of an assassin organization based in Nanjing. And we just uncovered evidence that they were behind an attempt on Lord Ak’s life, so I brought them here.”
“Th, that’s true?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here to meet Lord Ak.”
They glared at the two assassins with murderous expressions.
They were furious because they respected Lord Ak that much.
“At once – lock them in the prison cells.”
“Yes!”
Then I was led inside.
This estate was one of the many residences owned by the Shandong’s Ak Clan Clan, and the one where Lord Ak was currently staying.
It also wasn’t far from the Shandong’s Ak Clan Clan’s main house on Mount Tai.
I waited in the reception room, drinking tea, and before long Lord Ak entered.
“It’s been a while.”
“Have you been well? Eun Seo-ho, Deputy Merchant Lord of the Eunhae Merchant Group, greets you, my lord.”
“Thanks to you, I’ve been well.”
This was the first time I’d seen him since the business with Supervisor Mo Cheong from the Changhae Merchant Group and the Baekcheon Merchant Group.
“So then, why are you giving me this?”
He set the Imperial Decree I had given him on the table and asked,
“And I heard you brought in the people who just tried to assassinate me.”
“To be honest, that isn’t the decree I wanted to show you. It’s this one.”
I held out another Imperial Decree.
Lord Ak accepted it, unrolled it, and looked up at me with surprise.
Because this one was the decree ordering officials to investigate anything I wished.
I also pulled out the token of a Censorate Inspector and showed it to him.
At that, Lord Ak slowly nodded.
“I knew it… Even the last time I saw you, I could tell you weren’t ordinary. I was going to suggest you work under me, but it seems His Majesty the Emperor had already marked you out.”
“You flatter me.”
I bowed modestly, then continued.
“I ask that you investigate the assassin organization in Nanjing known as the Hidden Sand Assassins.”
Ak Yeong-gyeong, the Provincial Commander before me, was the Provincial Commander of Nanjing.
He might not have direct judicial authority, but he had more than enough influence to pressure the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner into getting this handled.
I placed the documents in front of him – records compiled by cross-checking the statements of the fraudulent physician and the man who had pushed the Archer God into the assassination – and said,
“If you look at the killings they’ve committed so far, they’re a blight eating away at the Empire. I don’t think they can be ignored.”
He read through the papers I handed him, and his face gradually turned red.
As expected of Lord Ak.
He hadn’t cared much that they had tried to kill him personally, but the rest of the killings clearly enraged him.
“These damned bastards! There are actually people this heinous under heaven!”
“You can investigate the matter and report directly to His Majesty the Emperor.”
“I understand. I’ll do exactly that.”
“There’s also one more thing I’d like to ask.”
I explained the Archer God’s circumstances to him.
“And so, I ask that he be pardoned.”
“What a deeply unfortunate story. In those circumstances, who could have avoided being driven into such a corner? He’s a victim too. And seeing as I’m perfectly fine, that much can easily be buried.”
“Thank you.”
I saluted him with cupped fists, smiling to myself.
With that, I’d handed all the troublesome cleanup over to Lord Ak.
Which meant now I could head back to the Eunhae Merchant Group’s main headquarters with the Archer God in peace, couldn’t I?
–TL Notes–
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