Chapter 13 - Bongyang Inn

Bongyang Inn.

While Jangho and the street thugs were being killed, Gi Daehyo and Gi Manji were examining a second-floor room at the Bongyang Inn, believed to be where the Suicide Plague had first appeared. The innkeeper, a man surnamed No, had followed them inside.

"Is this the room?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Were you the one who found them?"

"Yes. I was the first to find Machil and Choseon dead, hanging from that beam over there."

No answered Gi Daehyo's questions, bowing so deeply that his head nearly touched the floor.

"Hmm."

Working on the assumption that the two had been murdered rather than taken their own lives, Gi Daehyo began inspecting every corner of the room.

It was an ordinary room of the sort found in any inn. The suggestive bedspread dyed a deep red might have been considered unusual, but Gi Daehyo knew perfectly well what sort of business the Bongyang Inn conducted. He found nothing particularly strange or remarkable about it.

The first thing he checked was whether there was a window. If there was, an assassin might have entered through it.

But no matter where he looked—front, back, left, right, above, or below—there was no window. In an ordinary house, a window would usually be set into the wall opposite the entrance. In this room, however, that wall was simply a wall.

A single glance ruled out the possibility that anything had entered from that direction.

'Then did someone come through the door?'

RATTLE.

Gi Daehyo reopened the door he had shut and examined the inn's layout. The Bongyang Inn was a typical two-story building. The ground floor formed a square around an open central space, while the upstairs corridors formed a squared-off E. A staircase opened onto the middle of the corridor, with rows of rooms lining the passages on either side. From the upstairs corridor, the entire interior of the ground floor was clearly visible. Likewise, anyone downstairs could see people moving along the upper corridor.

That ruled out the possibility of an intruder entering through the door. If the culprit had come that way, someone—whether a waiter or a guest—would have seen them.

Entry from the front and back had been ruled out.

The right side was soon eliminated as well.

The room stood at the very tip of the upper arm of the E-shaped layout. Its right wall faced the outside. No one could possibly have entered from that direction without demolishing the wall.

Next came above and below. But entry from either direction was impossible too.

Above was the roof, after all.

No one could have entered that way without lifting off the entire roof.

Below was the floor.

That, too, would have to be removed entirely to allow entry. Both roof and floor had frameworks of timber and stone finished with clay. Not even a drop of water could easily seep through. Those possibilities were eliminated in an instant.

According to the innkeeper, no guests had been allowed into the room since Machil and Choseon's deaths, nor had any repairs been made. That conclusively ruled out entry from the front, back, right, above, and below.

Only the left wall remained. If the Suicide Plague truly was a series of murders, the culprit must have entered this room through that wall.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Gi Daehyo approached the left wall. An elegant tiger-striped cloth hung down like a long blind. It was thick and draped carefully to muffle sound, but cloth was still only cloth.

SWISH!

With a single sweep of Gi Daehyo's hand, the cloth was gone, exposing a wall made of parallel upright timbers.

"Hmm."

The sight convinced him he had been right. Unlike the other walls, this one would allow anyone to pass through freely if the timbers were removed.

The problem was...

Those timbers had never been removed.

"You there."

"Yes, my lord."

At Gi Daehyo's call, the innkeeper No hurried over and answered.

"Is there no way to remove these logs without lifting off the roof?"

"No, of course not, my lord. These timbers are fitted into grooves in the ceiling beams and floor beams. Unless all those beams are taken out, there's absolutely no way to pull them free."

Gi Daehyo knew that already, but had asked again to be certain.

He inspected the wall carefully once more. The logs had been neatly worked into cylinders, and the gaps between them looked too narrow to admit even a sheet of paper. He could find no trace of any timber having been removed.

'Does this mean... the recent string of suicides really is entirely the work of a plague?'

The thought crossed his mind, but he soon shook his head.

It made no sense. What plague in this world drove people to suicide?

Even if such a thing existed, a plague should spread gradually outward from a central area. Yet victims of the Suicide Plague had appeared irregularly all over Fengyang.

That would mean it was selective about whom it infected. He had never seen or heard of such a plague. It was absurd.

The conclusion was that this was no plague.

Once again leaning toward murder, Gi Daehyo examined the logs.

Could someone who had mastered the Bone-Shrinking Art to its utmost limit pass through those gaps? He had never seen or heard of such an expert, but he thought it might be possible. Murim was full of extraordinary people and strange happenings beyond imagination.

It seemed more likely than entry through the front, back, right, roof, or floor, which would scarcely let even water through.

At least water could pass between these worked logs, could it not? If someone could make their body as fluid as water, they could surely enter through here.

One possibility offered no chance at all; the other offered at least a sliver. Naturally, Gi Daehyo's reasoning veered toward the latter.

"Was anyone in the room next door when Machil died? Was it perhaps empty?"

Gi Daehyo asked expecting to hear that it had been empty. If so, the culprit could have entered that room and somehow passed through this wall.

His prediction was immediately proven wrong.

"Yes, there was a guest in that room too. I believe he came to the Bongyang Inn at almost the same time as Machil."

"... Who was it?"

Undiscouraged, Gi Daehyo continued questioning No.

"Sosam of the Danri Family."

No had specified Sosam of the Danri Family because there were so many people named Sosam. There were probably dozens in Fengyang alone.

But Sosam of the Danri Family could only mean the mute, Horse-Mute Sam.

"Sosam of the Danri Family? Who is that? Did we have someone by that name?"

Gi Daehyo had no idea who Sosam was. However well-known Sosam might be in Fengyang, the gap between their stations was immense. It would have been stranger if Gi Daehyo had known him.

That was why he was asking Gi Manji.

"Father, he is one of the family's horse handlers."

"A horse handler? Why would a man like that come here at that hour?"

"Presumably for the same reason Machil did."

The same reason as Machil?

Ah. Women.

Gi Daehyo's gaze went straight to No, who promptly nodded in confirmation.

"Yes, my lord. While Machil was bedding Choseon, Sosam was bedding Aeng-Aeng."

"Is that so? Then go and fetch this Aeng-Aeng girl."

No had scarcely answered yes before he brought Aeng-Aeng over.

She had been in the middle of entertaining a guest when she was dragged away without knowing why. As she straightened her disheveled clothing, Gi Daehyo began questioning her.

"Were you in the room next door with a man named Sosam on the day Machil and Choseon died?"

"Yes."

"What were you doing?"

Aeng-Aeng gave an incredulous laugh.

"Ho ho ho. What do you suppose a whore and a young fellow would do here? Fuck—"

"Aeng-Aeng! Mind your tongue!"

No hastily warned her to watch her mouth.

"... Sleeping together, of course."

"Was that all? Did you happen to see anything pass through the wall separating your room from the one Machil and Choseon were in?"

"Well... I was too busy fuck—doing the deed with Sosam to pay attention to anything else."

"Ahem."

No cleared his throat again in warning, but Gi Daehyo waved him off.

"It's all right. Was there anything else out of the ordinary?"

"No. Nothing unusual at all. Just the same as always... Oh, there was one thing. Sosam said he was hungry and asked me to bring him some food. Most guests here do the deed first and eat afterward, but Sosam ate first and then got down to business. Maybe he was nervous because it was his first time."

"Hmm."

Listening to Aeng-Aeng, Gi Daehyo stroked his beard, a habit he had whenever he was deep in thought.

But however hard he thought about it, the mere question of whether the meal had come before or after did not seem important, though it did leave him uneasy.

He asked Aeng-Aeng all sorts of other questions afterward, but still found nothing unusual.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Manji, let us be on our way."

"Yes, Father. Where do you intend to go next?"

"Let us visit the site of the next Suicide Plague incident."

Using their lightness skills, the two vanished from the Bongyang Inn in an instant.

Watching them go, No shook his head and headed downstairs. As Aeng-Aeng watched him in turn, she tossed out a casual remark.

"Come to think of it, there was one other unusual thing. That fellow Sosam had incredible stamina. Ahh... In all my life, I've never seen such amazing arts of the bedchamber. Isn't there another man like Sosam somewhere? For a man like that, I'd be ready to give myself to him, even if he was a mute and an idiot."

Aeng-Aeng smacked her lips wistfully, then went back to entertain her guest. Perhaps because she had recalled her time with Sosam, her body was already burning with desire. Whoever the man was, he would get a true taste of paradise today.

Soon the Bongyang Inn was once more what it had always been: a place teeming with men's lustful desires.