Chapter 116 - Opening the Eyes (3)

Once this job was finished, he would never see the client again, and the merchandise would soon be nothing more than lumps of meat, quite literally.

He held the rolled commission scroll back out to Palgeuk and asked,

"The merchandise?"

He was asking both whether the information in the scroll was accurate and where the merchandise was now.

Palgeuk answered at once.

"One has already been confirmed."

Confirmed. The word meant both that the information was accurate and that the target had been found.

"Then take care of it right away."

Hu Jangrang authorized collection of the merchandise.

"Yes, we will begin immediately. But whom should we assign to the job?"

Hu Jangrang frowned at Palgeuk's next question. There was no need to ask.

"Why ask me that? Send three third-class assassins after each. That's more than enough."

Three third-class assassins could easily dispose of some greenhorn who had only just entered the Murim. That was Hu Jangrang's assessment.

Yet instead of leaving after receiving his orders, Palgeuk remained where he was and spoke again.

"But... the sum the client offered concerns me."

"What do you mean?"

"Half a gwan of gold—1.875 kilograms."

"... What kind of nonsense is that? Are you saying the bastard offered half a gwan of gold just to dispose of these two?"

Half a gwan of gold was more money than most people could amass in a lifetime—no, in several generations. Someone had offered that staggering sum for this commission?

THUD.

"The client says there will be another half-gwan for each item collected."

"...!"

Palgeuk took a large lump of gold from inside his clothes and set it on the table beside Hu Jangrang's bed. Its heavy reverberation filled the room.

Hu Jangrang was aghast.

"... Don't tell me the client gave you that as an advance?"

"What a lunatic..."

Half a gwan of gold in advance, then another half-gwan for each item.

That meant the total bounty on this bastard and bitch was a gwan and a half of gold. A terrifying sum.

Who on earth were these targets, to warrant such a price?

The gold had chased every trace of sleep from Hu Jangrang. At last he got fully out of bed and spoke as he hastily pulled on his clothes.

"Did you establish the client's identity?"

"We could not. The client placed the order through a child."

It was a method clients often used to conceal their identities, and also the surest.

Once a message had passed through several children over several stages, the original client's identity inevitably grew obscure. And if the children failed to carry out their tasks properly, the client could simply watch from hiding and disappear.

But this method could leave the children, who had run their errands in complete ignorance, in serious trouble. In the worst case, they might even die.

Which meant this client was...

Extremely cautious. And exceedingly cruel.

Anyone who wanted to hide their identity was dangerous. If they were also cruel enough to use a child without a second thought, what more needed to be said?

Hu Jangrang's long experience was warning him of the danger this client posed.

What should he do?

"How are we to receive the remainder after collecting the merchandise?"

Palgeuk answered immediately.

"The client said we would receive it naturally the moment we completed the order. It appears the merchandise is carrying the gold bars."

"Hmm..."

Now fully dressed, Hu Jangrang turned the lump of gold on the table this way and that. He had entertained some doubts, but it was real gold.

A client who could casually throw out a sum like this before the work had even begun.

Who could it be?

And the two items such a client had ordered.

What sort of people were they?

"The deadline?"

He meant the deadline for completing the commission.

"We were told to finish before the Awakening of Insects."

Before the Awakening of Insects?

Only then did Hu Jangrang think he understood what the client wanted.

"Eliminating the competition."

The All-Under-Heaven Youth Sparring Tournament was, in both name and substance, a contest to select the Orthodox Faction's finest rising young talent. Naturally, the winner was certain to draw the attention of the Murim's venerable figures as someone qualified to contend for the next leadership of the Murim Alliance.

Fierce competition was only to be expected.

Thus, the purpose of this commission seemed all too clear.

But...

There was one oddity.

"Why order merchandise like this instead of the Three Stars, Five Phoenixes, and Nine Dragons?"

That continued to nag at him.

But Hu Jangrang soon put the question aside. He was only an assassin. His rule was to avoid unnecessary political judgments.

He had been paid.

All he had to do was kill. An assassin needed no further reason or justification.

Hu Jangrang turned his eyes toward Palgeuk, their earlier exhaustion gone as though it had never been there. They gleamed.

"Deploy first-class assassins."

"How many?"

"Five."

"Five? Then which target gets two?"

"No. Five for each."

"... Pardon?"

Palgeuk was startled.

A single first-class assassin could kill even an elder-level expert from a small or midsized sect in a surprise attack. Yet he was being ordered to deploy five of them. Of course he was shocked. Moreover, deploying one first-class assassin cost ten taels of silver per assignment. To send ten, in two groups of five...

That was a full hundred taels!

The advance had been generous, but even so, this was an excessive expense.

As those thoughts ran through Palgeuk's head, Hu Jangrang spoke again.

"We've been paid."

Money.

For organizations straddling the orthodox and unorthodox like the Deathblood Gang, money was justice. So long as they were paid, assassins had to cut down even their own fathers or children.

"... Yes, Branch Chief. I will carry out your orders."

Palgeuk bowed with a solemn expression and immediately started to leave, only to turn back.

"However, the one item we have located is not leaving Zhengzhou's city limits."

Did that mean disposing of the target quietly was out of the question?

Hu Jangrang narrowed his eyes for a moment, then repeated the same point to Palgeuk.

"We've been paid. That alone makes the commission binding."

"Yes, Branch Chief. I will carry out your orders."

With that final reply, Palgeuk left the room.

Hu Jangrang waited until Palgeuk was gone, then went back to sleep. He had yet to recover fully from his fatigue.

The order would probably be complete by the time he woke again.

SNORE.

His breath, faintly scented with liquor, slowly permeated the room.

The Deathblood Gang's Zhengzhou Branch.

Two order slips had been dispatched from there.

Just now.

A little pebble flew like a butterfly.

Yes. Strange as it looked, the stone really was flying like a butterfly.

It fluttered through the air and settled silently on its destination, a stone cairn. The cairn, already the size of a house, grew a little taller and a little larger.

"Woooow!"

"That's amazing!"

"Mister, you're the best!"

For whatever reason, the neighborhood children were delighted, gaping at the cairn in wonder. A few days earlier, they had marveled at a handful of unremarkable pictures he had drawn; now they were exclaiming over his stone throwing.

Dong Bongsu paid them no mind and picked up another stone to throw.

Another member joined the cairn's family.

"Wow!"

The children went wild over every trivial thing he did.

To their eyes, it was utterly wondrous how a stone he had clearly thrown straight ahead could trace such a bizarre path through the air.

"Mithter, why are you making this tower?"

One child, unable to contain their curiosity, came up to ask.

Perhaps it was only natural to be curious about a white-haired man who had stood in one place for days, drawing pictures and throwing stones.

"I'm waiting."

Dong Bongsu spoke. Unless he answered, they would pester him endlessly. He knew that perfectly well without having to experience it. Children were nuisances wherever one went. Their unripeness was also a large part of why he could not simply finish them off. An astringent persimmon was worse than nothing.

"Huh? Who are you waiting for? You've been thtanding right here for three days!"

"Aggro."

"Oggro? What's that?"

The little one's lisping questions continued.

Even so, Dong Bongsu went on without showing the slightest annoyance.

"Something... to sate my hunger."

"Hunger? Oh, food! Mithter, are you hungry? I gueth you couldn't have eaten properly out here. Poor thing."

Poor thing? He supposed it could look that way. Dong Bongsu nodded once without much thought, then threw another stone.

PLIP, PLIP, PLIP...

This stone struck the stream at a flat angle and skipped across the water until it vanished from sight. The ripples it left tried to follow, but could not keep up. Several children marveled at the sight and rushed off after it.

But the lisping little one who had spoken to Dong Bongsu was still looking at him with pity.

'What an innocent little thing.'

He had learned the word innocence and knew what it meant, but he had never met anyone truly innocent. Yet perhaps this child before him was just such a person, Dong Bongsu considered.

The child pondered something for a long while, then rummaged inside their clothes. Soon a tiny hand emerged holding a piece of sweat-soaked mooncake. The child held it out to Dong Bongsu and said,

"Here. Eat it. Hee-ah ith abtholutely not giving you this becauth I like you, Mithter!"

Dong Bongsu accepted the child's mooncake and tossed it into his mouth without the slightest hesitation. The saltiness obscured the sweetness, but once digested, it would be nutrients all the same. Taste was not important.

GULP.

He could see the child hastily swallowing saliva.

Had the little one given him an emergency ration long saved to eat later?

To someone with a million in gold, a tael of silver might be nothing. But to someone with one tael of silver, it was everything. Likewise, to this little one, Hee-ah, the damp, sweat-soaked mooncake Dong Bongsu had just swallowed had been everything. And the child had given it to him, a complete stranger, expecting nothing in return.

It was something Dong Bongsu found difficult to imagine, something he had never experienced.

A new... breed of human, utterly unlike any he had encountered before.