The gate bar was cold.
The rain showed no sign of letting up. The stream of water falling from the eaves thinned, then thickened again, over and over. Jang Isu stood there, feeling the cold through his palm. Laughter still drifted from inside the gate. Jwa Woryang's voice was especially loud. Judging by how many rounds of liquor had passed, the laughter was growing louder by the minute.
At the far end of the courtyard, two guards helped their fallen companion to his feet. The man’s eyes were open, but his legs had no strength in them. The two men hooked their arms beneath his armpits and dragged him, almost, beyond the wall. His feet left two trails through the mud. Jang Isu watched his back all the way without closing the gate. Sixteen faces had passed through this gate tonight. One of them had been dragged out through the mud.
The rain shook the shadow of the eave lantern. The lantern leaned sharply in the wet wind once in a while, then barely righted itself. Inside the walls, dishes clattered and servants hurried back and forth. The feast continued, regardless of the commotion. For three years, the mountain estate had always been filled with sounds like these at this hour. Tonight, only one other thing had been mixed in beneath them.
Then footsteps approached. Neither hurried nor slow, but heavy with deliberate pressure. It was Wang Ho. His face was different from a moment ago. All traces of laughter had vanished, and three familiar swordsmen followed behind him. All three had their hands near their sword hilts.
“Jang Isu.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what you just did?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Jang Isu said. “The guard drew his sword first.”
“And that’s your excuse for leaving a man in that state?”
“I never laid a hand on him.”
Wang Ho scoffed. The three swordsmen behind him stepped into the courtyard in unison. Beneath the lantern, the four men’s shadows stretched long, surrounding a single Gatekeeper.
“One of the Vice Chief’s men was thrown into the mud right in front of him. He can’t even stand up, without a single visible injury. Does that look like you never laid a hand on him?”
“I told you what happened.”
“Do you not know what the Celestial Blossom Gang is?” Wang Ho demanded. “If they go back with what they saw here today, the estate will lose three escort contracts next month, all at once. If one escort bureau turns its back, ten more will follow. This isn’t about the Estate Master’s pride. It’s the mountain estate’s livelihood at stake.”
Jang Isu said nothing.
“There’s only one way.” Wang Ho lowered his voice. “Go out in front of the Vice Chief and kneel. Say it was your fault and ask for a beating. Then they can save face, and things here will quiet down. A few strokes. That’s all it’ll take.”
“It was something I didn’t do.”
“Whether you did it or not isn’t the point!” Wang Ho raised his voice. “What matters here is who bows their head. If the Gatekeeper bows, this ends in five words. If I, a swordsman, bow, all thirty-six swordsmen look like fools. If the Estate Master bows, that’s an entirely different matter. One of the three has to bow.”
Laughter from the drinking party drifted through the rain again.
“If you refuse, I’ll leave a written report.” Wang Ho added, “Gatekeeper Jang Isu injured a guest’s accompanying guard and brought harm to the mountain estate. If I submit that to the Estate Master, you’ll have to leave the estate tonight. You know a single Gatekeeper’s position isn’t hard to fill, don’t you? Three years is a long time to have lasted. Where will you go once you’re out?”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“Have you forgotten the Gatekeeper who talked back to a guest last year and disappeared from the estate three days later? What reason do you have to last longer than he did?”
“None. Even so, I won’t kneel.”
“You’re stubborn to the end.”
“I refuse.”
It was a short answer. Wang Ho’s eyes narrowed.
“What did you say?”
“I won’t kneel. And I won’t ask to be beaten for something I didn’t do.”
“A man who spent three years bowing and scraping at the gate suddenly has a lot to say today.”
“Today’s an occasion worth speaking at length about.”
Wang Ho strode forward. The three swordsmen behind him followed by half a step each. The four pairs of feet struck the mud almost simultaneously.
“Do I look like I’m asking?” Wang Ho reached out and grabbed Jang Isu by the collar. “If you won’t bow willingly, I’ll make you bow. All three of them are watching. I need to settle this before tonight is over, or I won’t have anything to say to the Vice Chief.”
His grip tightened on the collar. He intended to press Jang Isu straight down onto his knees. His hand bore down with his weight behind it, and all that weight was pitched forward. The eyes of the three swordsmen behind him fixed as one on Jang Isu’s knees. Rainwater ran over the back of Wang Ho’s hand and seeped inside Jang Isu’s collar.
Jang Isu did not retreat.
Instead, he moved his right foot half a step back.
It was half a step. Nothing more.
Wang Ho’s hand, which had been gripping and pressing down on his collar, suddenly slipped through empty air. The body that should have been standing in the direction of his force was gone, and all that force rebounded onto Wang Ho himself. He pitched forward.
His knees slammed into the mud.
Precisely the way he had intended to make Jang Isu kneel.
None of the three swordsmen laughed. Instead, they looked at one another’s faces. All three had seen it. A swordsman had knelt before a Gatekeeper without anyone touching him. By his own strength, no less. Not one of the three could speak first. The youngest-looking swordsman quietly took his hand off his sword hilt.
Wang Ho couldn’t get up for a while. He braced his palms in the mud and could only gasp for breath. His face flushed red, then quickly turned white. The hand that had been reaching for his sword hilt remained buried in the mud.
“…What did you just do?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie!”
“I only moved from where I was standing.”
Wang Ho rose. Mud clung to his knees and palms. Without even thinking to brush it off, he glared at Jang Isu. Something different than before had entered that glare. Beneath the anger, very faintly, there was fear.
One of the swordsmen behind him cleared his throat. None of them helped Wang Ho up. That alone seemed to decide how tonight’s events would spread through the entire mountain estate tomorrow.
“…This isn’t over.”
“Yes.”
Wang Ho could say no more. He led the swordsmen inside. Muddy footprints continued to the steps beyond the gate, one every three paces. None of them looked back.
Only the sound of water falling from the eaves remained.
Jang Isu stood alone before the gate again. The trembling in his fingertips had already subsided. His face was calm, as though what had just happened was no different from what happened every day for the past three years. He straightened his collar once. Wang Ho’s fingerprints remained, but that was all.
He won’t last long.
It was a thought he kept to himself. Wang Ho was only the second name. Tonight’s host was the first. And that name had not yet crossed this threshold again.
Then the inner door opened once more.
This time, it was a servant, not a swordsman. The hand holding the lantern was trembling faintly. He must have seen Wang Ho kneeling in the mud from the other side of the courtyard. His voice was cautious in equal measure.
“Um, Gatekeeper.”
“Yes?”
“The Vice Chief… heard about what happened at the gate today. But he isn’t angry. He’s ordered us to bring that Gatekeeper to the drinking party. He says he wants to see your face himself.”
The servant readjusted his grip on the lantern while waiting for an answer. His fingertips were still trembling. There was normally no reason to be this frightened over summoning a single Gatekeeper.
Jang Isu’s hand paused for the briefest moment on the gate bar.
The lantern light inside the gate flickered beyond the servant’s shadow. Ten paces away, he saw a man holding a cup from the table, squinting toward him. For the first time, the face whose name he had memorized for ten years was looking directly at him.
Jwa Woryang was calling for him.
Without taking his hand from the gate bar, Jang Isu opened the gate a little farther instead of answering.