Dawn was short.
It was not yet time to open the gate. Even so, a lone shadow stood outside the main gate. Before Jang Isu could even place a hand on the gate bar, the shadow moved first.
“Swordsman Wang.” Jang Isu stopped walking. “It isn’t time yet.”
“I know.” Wang Ho’s voice was hoarse. His face looked like he had stayed up all night. The scabbard whose lacquer had once been fresh was stained with hand grime today. “I came early because I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead.”
Wang Ho stood there for a long while without saying a word. Then he suddenly clasped both hands together. The man who had treated Jang Isu as a subordinate for three years bowed his head for the first time.
“I won’t say I was… wrong.” His voice was low. “But I have one favor to ask. If someone comes from headquarters again, don’t mention me. No one knows about the side gate that night except you.”
“That isn’t for me to decide.”
“What do you mean, it isn’t for you to decide?” Wang Ho’s eyes widened. “If you keep your mouth shut, no one will know. Even Vice Chief Jwa couldn’t expose it. That means you’re the only one who can.”
“If the Gang Chief asks, I’ll answer.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“If he doesn’t ask, I have no reason to bring it up first.”
A flicker of relief crossed Wang Ho’s face. But it hardened again soon after.
“Can I trust what you just said?”
“Whether you trust it or not is up to you, Swordsman.”
“Are you joking?” Wang Ho’s voice rose. “I’m asking you with my life on the line. It took less than ten days to bring down Vice Chief Jwa’s position. Do you think mine will be any different?”
“I have never brought down your position.”
“Never?” Wang Ho took a step closer. “The moment you got hold of that paper, everything had already started to collapse. The Vice Chief, me—and who’s next?”
Jang Isu did not answer. A light Jang Isu had never seen before appeared in Wang Ho’s eyes. It was the light of fear turning into anger.
“Answer me.” He placed a hand on his scabbard. “Hand over the paper. Now.”
“No.”
“That’s the third time you’ve said no.” Wang Ho’s hand left the scabbard and moved to the sword hilt. “Three years. I treated you like a subordinate for three years, and you never once bent. Now I finally understand why. You took this position because you were targeting me from the beginning.”
“I only came here to guard the gate.”
“Liar!” Wang Ho drew his sword. The blade gave a brief ring in the dawn air. “With that one paper, you brought down the Vice Chief, and now you’re after me too. Tell me that isn’t true!”
Jang Isu did not draw his sword. His hand did not even move toward the hilt. Instead, he took half a step back and raised his right hand lightly.
“Swordsman Wang.” His voice remained low. “I don’t draw my sword.”
“That only makes it more ridiculous!” Wang Ho raised his sword. “You think you can win without drawing it? Then try taking this.”
The sword came down. Straight for his shoulder.
Jang Isu did not dodge. Instead, the tips of his right-hand fingers brushed the side of the blade. He did not push it. He did not pull it. He merely shifted the sword’s intended path half a step to the side.
That was enough.
Wang Ho’s sword cleaved empty air instead of his shoulder. His body lurched forward after the blade. A body that had forgotten real combat over three years could not overcome its own momentum and pitched forward. The tip of the sword struck the stone pillar beside the main gate. The clang rang out through the dawn alley.
Wang Ho dropped to his knees. The sword fell from his hand. His palm split open, and blood seeped out. Swinging the sword and losing his grip on it—both had been entirely his own doing. Jang Isu stood exactly where he was without touching him with so much as a fingertip.
Just then, several sets of footsteps approached from the direction of the covered corridor. They were the swordsmen making the mountain estate’s morning patrol. They stopped when they saw Wang Ho kneeling and the Gatekeeper standing calmly before him.
“What in the—” The lead swordsman’s eyes widened. “Swordsman Wang, did you draw your sword in front of the main gate?”
Wang Ho could not answer. He clutched his split palm and could not even raise his head.
“Swordsman Wang can’t possibly be unaware that drawing a sword for a personal quarrel in front of the mountain estate’s gate is forbidden by the rules.” The patrol swordsman’s voice turned stiff. “And on top of that, your opponent was an unarmed Gatekeeper.”
“I… I only…”
“You can explain it before the Estate Master.” The patrol swordsman nodded to the others. Two men moved to either side of Wang Ho. Their steps were no different from those of Jwa Woryang’s attendant when he had been dragged away yesterday.
As Wang Ho was dragged away, he looked back at Jang Isu one last time.
“You… didn’t even draw your sword.” His voice trembled. “Then why was I the one who fell?”
“I don’t know,” Jang Isu answered shortly. It was not a lie. He had merely stood there. Wang Ho had been the one to use his strength, and Wang Ho had been the one unable to bear it.
Wang Ho could say no more and was dragged beyond the covered corridor. A few drops of blood from his torn palm remained on the stone floor.
Jang Isu stood there, looking outside the main gate. The sun had not yet fully risen. Ten days had passed since Jwa Woryang was dragged away, and today another name belonging to someone at his side had been erased. One of the ten had lost his position, and yet another beside him had collapsed of his own accord.
His fingertips moved unconsciously to the callused spot on his hand. Wang Ho was not yet on the list of ten. But after today, it did not seem likely that there would be any place left for his name to rise again.
The main gate slowly opened. It was time for the first freight cart of the morning to enter. But beyond it, Jang Isu’s eyes were still turned elsewhere. If one of the mountain estate’s thirty-six swordsmen had knelt today, where would the eyes of the remaining thirty-five turn now? No one yet knew the answer.
It took less than half a day for the rumor to spread through the mountain estate’s inner courtyard. After the morning freight carts came and went, low voices passed through the covered corridors. One of the thirty-six swordsmen had drawn his sword in front of the Gatekeeper, only to fall on his own. Some laughed. Others kept their mouths shut. Jang Isu engaged with neither group and held his broom as usual.
Before noon, an attendant came running to the main gate. It was a familiar face, a boy who handled small errands in the mountain estate’s inner hall.
“Jang Isu. The Estate Master is calling for you.”
“Now?”
“Yes. He says to come to the study in the inner hall.” The boy added, catching his breath, “His expression… it was different from usual.”
Jang Isu propped the broom against the gate. He could not leave the main gate completely unattended. He called over a passing servant to take his place for a while, then headed toward the inner hall.
Jang Isu stopped briefly in front of the study door. A low cough sounded from inside. When he knocked, the door opened on its own instead of a voice telling him to enter. The Estate Master himself had touched it.
The room was cool. Seated by the window, the Estate Master looked up at him without setting down his brush. His age was difficult to guess. His eyes were too clear to call him old, yet the backs of his hands were marked with dark age spots that made it difficult to call him young.
“I heard about what happened this morning.”
“Yes.”
“One of the thirty-six swordsmen fell over on his own in front of an unarmed Gatekeeper.” The Estate Master set down his brush. “An interesting story. No one can explain exactly what you did.”
“I was only standing there.”
“I heard those words ten days ago, too. In the matter of Vice Chief Jwa.” The Estate Master’s eyes narrowed. “You were only standing there, yet the Vice Chief was dragged to headquarters, and a swordsman knelt. Wherever you stand, someone seems to collapse.”
Jang Isu did not answer. The Estate Master continued without waiting for one.
“Do you know what I saw when I took you in as this mountain estate’s Gatekeeper three years ago?”
“No.”
“You were a man who walked in without so much as a résumé. You never revealed where you came from or whether you had learned martial arts. Even so, there was one reason I took you in. You had the eyes of a man who wanted nothing.” The Estate Master slowly rose. “Not a position, wealth, or a name. People like that are rare. But lately, those eyes of yours have begun to look a little different.”
“If they look different to you…”
“They’re the eyes of someone waiting for something.” The Estate Master turned his gaze toward the window. It overlooked the main gate in the distance. “I won’t ask what you’re waiting for. Not yet. But I’ll tell you one thing. Behind Swordsman Wang stands his uncle. He has ties to the escort bureau. Which means I doubt today’s incident will end quietly.”
Jang Isu’s fingertips unconsciously moved to the callused spot on his hand.
“I believe you when you say you did nothing.” The Estate Master turned back toward him. “But the world won’t believe it. From now on, the faces that stand before the main gate will look at you differently.”
When Jang Isu left the study, his steps were slightly slower than usual. As he passed through the covered corridor, he rubbed the callus with his right thumb again. The Estate Master’s words had not been a threat. They had been closer to a warning about facts to come. Since Jwa Woryang’s downfall and Wang Ho’s kneeling, the eyes of those coming and going through the mountain estate had already changed.
When he reached the main gate, a servant greeted him. Along with word that nothing unusual had happened, the servant delivered news that an unfamiliar carriage would arrive at the mountain estate that afternoon. It bore the flag of an escort bureau.
Jang Isu took the broom in hand again. The Estate Master’s words about Wang Ho’s uncle being connected to the escort bureau lingered in his ears. Barely one and a half of the ten names had been shaken, yet a new face was already approaching from outside the main gate.
The sun began to slope westward. The main gate remained open. Beyond it, the shadow of a carriage approaching through a cloud of dust was slowly growing longer.