Chapter 29: In Murim, Beware of Those Wearing Overfit

When I finished playing, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate did not react much. She just smiled and said…

“That was an excellent performance.”

Then she took out five bottles of Drunken Immortal Wine from somewhere and handed them to me.

Five bottles of this precious wine for just one performance was a great benefit for me, so I promised to continue playing for the remaining period and left her room.

After that, my daily life at the Moon-gazing Pavilion passed without incident.

The youngest and I left the host bar and returned to the Moon-gazing Pavilion as guards, as we had originally promised Moon-seok…

“Young Master! I’m here-!”

“…Young Lady Sohyang, you’re here again?”

Since that day, Sohyang came to visit every day, so I had to wear silk clothes again.

Well… it’s not that I disliked her visits.

She had a lot of money, so she didn’t even blink when I ordered expensive drinks, and more importantly…

“Young Master… Please take this to your Head Family… Although the money I gave you should have already paid off the debt… use this for your sick parents’ hospital bills…”

“Sniff… Thank you, Young Lady. I will never forget this kindness…”

Whenever I showed a sad expression, Sohyang would voluntarily give me money, so I could make quite a profit.

“Young Master… I came with my sister…”

“Yo-Young Lady Heeya. P-Please don’t come any closer and talk from there… Ugh…”

Sohyang’s younger sister, who followed her, also liked our youngest very much, so he could get some pocket money as well.

…He still seemed unaccustomed to the bold actions of the Young Lady, but well… that wasn’t my concern either.

Thus, my life of sleeping in the morning and playing with Sohyang at night continued for several days.

It also became a routine to go to the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s room and play the geomungo after business hours.

Perhaps because the Lower Filth Gate had a lot of money, she seemed to have a lot of personal assets as well.

Tung-.

“That was an excellent performance. This is an additional payment besides the Drunken Immortal Wine I promised.”

She would throw a silver ingot or gold at me whenever I finished playing.

How much money have I already made at the brothel in the past week?

I thought that if it were like this, I should have just made a big score at the brothel and lived in a quiet place.

‘Now I have too many people to take care of…’

I was thinking that I had chosen the wrong path from the beginning when I picked up the silver ingot thrown by the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate.

“……”

“……?”

She was looking at me with a subtle gaze, different from before. Sensing that she was contemplating talking to me, I asked first.

“Do you have something to say?”

“……”

After a brief hesitation, she opened her mouth.

“Do you know what the Lower Filth Gate offered you 200 taels of gold for?”

“Well… you said I just had to guard the brothel for a week, right?”

“Yes, and tomorrow is the last day.”

“……”

Her voice was very meaningful as she said that.

Yeah, damn it.

There must be something bigger.

If it’s just guarding the brothel for 200 taels of gold a week, I would have taken this as a lifelong job.

As I nodded roughly, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate said something unexpected.

“Tomorrow’s event is crucial to the future of the Lower Filth Gate… but it is also related to my personal matters.”

“What…?”

Information about tomorrow’s event.

Until now, the Lower Filth Gate members had hidden it no matter what, but now the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate was talking about it.

I was curious about the sudden change of heart that made her tell me this information.

“Why are you suddenly telling me this?”

“…The Lower Filth Gate is a suspicious group. I, who am in charge here, am no different.”

I already knew that the shady members of the Lower Filth Gate were distrustful and suspicious. But why now…? Could it be…

As if confirming my guess, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate bowed her head and continued.

“I couldn’t trust you until now. I doubted and doubted again. I’m sorry.”

“……”

“From the moment we first met at the Jugeol to now, I have judged your character through rather extreme methods. I apologize once again for this.”

“Huh…”

Well… yeah…

Indeed, openly provoking and crossing the line wasn’t typical of the Lower Filth Gate. So, they want to say that it was all their way of evaluating people?

What, was it an endurance test or something?

‘Let’s see if this guy doesn’t get angry even if we do this!’ Something like that?

Thinking about it made me feel really ridiculous. After that, I became curious about something more fundamental and asked her.

“So, can you trust me now? Based on what?”

“……”

“Is it because I played the geomungo for you every night? Hey, I just did that because you gave me money and drinks…”

“Is that what you think?”

“…What?”

The Leader of the Lower Filth Gate interrupted me and smiled at me.

“You are strong. I’m not talking about the level of your martial prowess, but you as a person are strong. That strength is evident to others. However… you are fundamentally different from other strong people I know.”

“What is that…?”

When I asked out of genuine curiosity, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate answered immediately.

“You are strong, but you always pretend to be strong.”

“…Huh?”

Does that mean I’m a pretentious weakling? I couldn’t understand the meaning of her words and tilted my head.

“Your appearance is bold and impressive. It feels like you have the ability to do whatever you want. However… you are just pretending.”

“……”

“The strong are arrogant and indifferent. But you are kind. You think a lot about others and are very considerate.”

“…I’ve never heard such a thing since I was born.”

This includes my previous life.

I’ve heard a lot about being rude, but never about being kind. Really.

I thought the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate had no eye for people, but her eyes were sincere. It was as if she was saying that her words were not just flattery.

“That is because you have always pretended to be strong to the weak. I could tell from the way you played the geomungo. On the first day, you played a cheerful tune because I seemed gloomy, didn’t you?”

“Well, that is…”

That’s true, but…

“After that, you subtly observed my mood and played different tunes each time. I could feel your consideration then.”

“……No, that was because you…”

Because you seemed pitiful and unfortunate.

I was about to say that but stopped.

Sympathizing and pitying someone can be unpleasant depending on how it’s received.

But…

“Were you about to say it was because you pitied me?”

“……”

…The Leader of the Lower Filth Gate seemed to have mind-reading skills as she continued.

“Usually, the strong can feel sympathy for others, but that’s it. They don’t try to match the other person’s mood or be considerate.”

“……”

“And ultimately, Moon-seok, the Branch Leader of Sichuan, has a very strict eye for people. Yet, he gave you a generous evaluation. Specifically…”

‘He may not seem like it, but he is a person of loyalty.’

“…That’s what he said.”

“……”

Hearing the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s words, I felt a bit embarrassed.

Why did Uncle Moon-seok say such an embarrassing thing? And did I ever show loyalty to Uncle Moon-seok?

I can’t… remember.

Anyway, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate seemed to think highly of me.

What? That I only pretend to be strong but am actually kind and considerate? Was I like that?

Wait a minute… Pretending to be strong on the outside but being kind behind the scenes…

‘Tsundere…?’

…Isn’t that a tsundere?

Am I a tsundere? It was absurd.

I was someone who planned to run away if there was any danger in the Lower Filth Gate. I could only shake my head at the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s misunderstanding.

I didn’t hide the fact and told her.

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m very cowardly and good at running away. I was planning to run away tomorrow if something seemed off.”

“Haha, is that so. If that’s the case, you may run away.”

Her next words slightly pierced me.

“If someone like you ran away, there must have been a reason.”

“……”

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.

She might not have known, but her words just touched my reverse scale.

The Leader of the Lower Filth Gate looked at my hardened expression strangely and spoke softly.

“I’ve said everything I needed to say. You may leave now.”

“…Alright.”

I quickly regained my composure, nodded, and packed my geomungo. Until then, I kept thinking about what the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate had said to me.

If someone like you ran away, there must have been a reason.

…Do I deserve to hear such words?

……

No, I don’t think so.

The Leader of the Lower Filth Gate was free to think whatever she wanted about me, but I was definitely not the person she thought I was.

I told myself that as I left her room.

**

Due to the nature of the brothel’s business, I fell asleep at dawn, so my waking time was late afternoon.

But today, I felt restless and had trouble sleeping, so I woke up even later.

Seeing that the sun had already set, I left the room I was staying in. As soon as I stepped outside, I realized that today was different from usual. And for good reason…

“Huh?”

“Oh, Big Brother. You’re awake?”

“Yeah, youngest. But why…”

The Moon-gazing Pavilion usually didn’t have days off, but today the lanterns were not lit.

“Didn’t you light the lamps? Are we not open for business today?”

“Oh, yes. I asked the manager earlier, and he said we’re not open today. And…”

our youngest pointed below. There…

“…The atmosphere is quite tense.”

…Martial artists from the Lower Filth Gate were waiting everywhere with swords.

“…It seems like something big is happening. Youngest, let’s change our clothes and go to our position.”

“Yes, Big Brother.”

Not knowing exactly what was going on, we changed our clothes and went to our usual post at the entrance. Moon-seok was there.

“Uncle Moon-seok.”

“…Ah, you’re here.”

Moon-seok, who was always relaxed and friendly, had a tense expression today. He tried to maintain a calm demeanor as he spoke to me.

“You must have noticed, but something is about to happen. As I mentioned before, you just need to stay in your position.”

“What exactly is happening?”

“…You’ll find out soon enough, whether you want to or not. Ah, they’re coming…”

“What’s coming? Oh…?”

Following Moon-seok’s gaze, I saw something.

A group of men was approaching from the end of the street.

They were wearing black martial arts uniforms and masks, as if they wanted to hide their identities, but…

“Oh, those guys…”

I could tell who they were just by looking at their appearance.

The wide sleeves of their loose overfit clothes. There was only one place in Murim that insisted on that fashion.

‘Sichuan Tang Family.’

Those idiots insist on putting poison or hidden weapons in their sleeves instead of their pockets, so they stick to wide-sleeved clothes.

So, anyone with some knowledge can immediately identify a martial artist with wide sleeves as someone who uses Poison Arts.

It’s like knowing that a brightly colored frog has deadly poison.

Well… I described them as frogs, but that doesn’t mean I underestimated them.

“Hey, youngest. Do you remember what I told you before?”

“If things get dangerous, run away?”

“That’s right.”

A brightly colored poison dart frog is said to have deadly poison that can kill a human in one go. Those guys are the same.

You shouldn’t underestimate those guys who insist on wearing oversized clothes. Inside those clothes, there are poisons that can kill hundreds of people.

“Stay alert. Those guys are the poison dart frogs of Murim.”

“…I don’t know what kind of frog that is, but it certainly sounds like something to be cautious of.”

I patted our youngest’s shoulder and watched as the men approached the Moon-gazing Pavilion.