If Kim Oheung was in Seoho, then Hanyang had Jang Obok.
Kim Oheung was a boatman, while Jang Obok was a low-ranking official—a junior clerk. He was strong and quick despite his low position, and he was also known as a chivalrous man who could not tolerate injustice.
That was why, whenever trouble broke out in a marketplace or on the streets, people always went looking for Jang Obok.
Jang Obok called himself a chivalrous man, so he always took the side of the weak. And though he was only a low-ranking official, the fact that he was still an official meant that even the Hyangdo Gang thugs gave way before him.
“Mister! Mister!”
On his way home from work, Jang Obok always stopped by Songpa Tavern in Songpa Market for a cup of rice wine before going home. Though people revered Jang Obok as a street hero, he was, in truth, nothing more than an old bachelor who hated returning to a dark, empty house.
“Huh? Who’s this? Isn’t that Gaettongi?”
Jang Obok downed a generous bowl of rice wine, wiped the corner of his mouth, and looked at Gaettongi. Gaettongi grabbed Jang Obok’s sleeve.
“You little rascal! If you’ve come home, you should greet your mother!”
Jang Obok flicked Gaettongi on the forehead. Gaettongi clutched his forehead and groaned before speaking to Jang Obok.
“That’s not important, Mister! Something terrible happened!”
“Something terrible?”
Jang Obok had just gotten off work, and as a human being, he wanted to rest. So he poured himself another bowl of rice wine and answered with little interest, his posture relaxed.
“Yes! Those bad men from the Songpa Gang took away a Mister I’ve never seen before!”
“The Songpa Gang?”
But the moment the Songpa Gang’s name came from Gaettongi’s mouth, Jang Obok’s eyes changed. The Songpa Gang was an organization of thugs formed to seize the interests of Songpa Market.
Rumors had spread throughout Songpa Market that the Songpa Gang claimed to be descendants of the Geomgye, which had been destroyed decades ago by Police Chief Jang Bungik, and that they had begun fighting over control of the market with thugs who had drifted in from other markets.
The conflict had not yet escalated into an open struggle, but when such tensions rose to the surface, it was innocent commoners who suffered. Jang Obok sprang to his feet, dusting off his backside with righteous fury.
“Tavern keeper! Put it on my tab!”
“Wait, at least pay before you go… Gaettongi?”
“Mom! Sorry! It’s a real emergency!”
Gaettongi was the son of the owner of Songpa Tavern. Ever since he was little, he had wandered through every corner of the market instead of playing with children his own age, making him a constant source of worry for his mother.
And now that troublesome child had taken an even bigger troublemaker with him. The tavern keeper could not help but worry. But before she could stop them, Gaettongi and Jang Obok had already disappeared.
“Oh, dear. What am I supposed to do…?”
“This is serious. I overheard them just now. It looks like Clerk Jang went after the Songpa Gang.”
“W-With Gaettongi?”
The tavern keeper’s eyes grew as large as lanterns. Jang Obok was a renowned chivalrous man and fighter in this area, but the Songpa Gang were thugs who carried blades.
Rumors had been circulating that whenever someone disappeared in Songpa Market, it was because the Songpa Gang had made them vanish. The tavern keeper worried her lips between her teeth.
“What do I do? What do I do?”
She looked around for someone who might help, but everyone whose eyes met hers quietly looked away. The problem was that they were dealing with the Songpa Gang.
Their cowardice stung, but she could not exactly blame them. Their own lives were the most important thing, after all, so she could not fault them entirely.
But she could not run to the Police Bureau, either.
It had been quite some time since the Police Bureau constables had done their jobs properly. Most of them were no longer people who upheld the law; they had been bought off with money.
Even if she went to report the matter, all the Songpa Gang would have to do was slip some money to the Police Bureau, and her report would disappear as though it had never happened.
No—worse, the constables might tell the Songpa Gang that she had reported them, and then the Songpa Gang might come looking for her.
There had been more than a few cases of people suffering such injustice only to be threatened afterward.
Still, this concerned her child’s safety. As a mother, she could not simply sit by and do nothing. If Gaettongi’s father were still around, things might have been different, but it had already been several years since she had been widowed.
“Ha—ha!”
Then the tavern keeper suddenly remembered something one of her customers had said and clapped her hands.
“M-Money! Money!”
Crash!
She rushed straight into the common room, roughly shoving aside the people sleeping there. Then she tore up a section of the floor and pulled out a wooden chest.
Clink, clink.
Inside was a pile of cash coins she had saved. She tucked the chest of coins under her arm, ran barefoot out of the tavern, and hurried off somewhere.
“This place…”
“Do you know it?”
Kim Oheung asked the Hangang Gang Chief, who had accompanied him this far by following the cart’s wheel tracks. The Hangang Gang Chief cursed inwardly before answering.
“It’s one of the Songpa Gang’s strongholds.”
“The Songpa Gang.”
If that book had already fallen into the Songpa Gang’s hands, there was nothing the Hangang Gang could do. But Kim Oheung interpreted the matter differently.
“So he really was a thief!”
The man who had driven a cart loaded high with books into a Songpa Gang stronghold had to be a thief, just as the Hangang Gang Chief had said.
Besides, there had been no signs of a struggle in the tracks left on the ground. That meant the man had entered of his own accord, which only deepened Kim Oheung’s misunderstanding that Jo Won was part of the Songpa Gang.
“I’ll go in and find him.”
“G-Go in? They’re all carrying knives!”
“If I were afraid of a few knives, I wouldn’t be Kim Oheung of Seoho.”
The Hangang Gang Chief was clearly reluctant. His own life was the most precious thing in the world to him. Entering a den crawling with knife-wielding thugs while unarmed would be suicide.
“B-Big Brother. I don’t have skills like yours.”
“What are you talking about? If the money from selling those books falls into the hands of thugs like the Songpa Gang, the people’s lives will only grow harder. I can’t let that wealth fall into the hands of scoundrels.”
Kim Oheung rolled up his sleeves and strode inside. But just then, Jang Obok and Gaettongi appeared from behind with the rapid patter of approaching footsteps.
“Gasp!”
The Hangang Gang Chief let out a strangled sound and jumped in surprise at the sight of Jang Obok’s face. The Hangang Gang had also been thoroughly beaten by Jang Obok once before.
“Do you know him?”
Since the man was wearing an official robe, Kim Oheung asked the Hangang Gang Chief. But the answer did not come from the chief. It burst out of Gaettongi’s mouth instead.
“What about you, Mister? Who are you?”
“Me? I’m Kim Oheung of Seoho.”
“Kim Oheung? You?”
Jang Obok’s eyes widened. He had heard the name Kim Oheung several times before. But soon, Jang Obok’s face twisted.
“So all the rumors were lies! You’re with the Songpa Gang too!”
Jang Obok had encountered Kim Oheung in front of a Songpa Gang stronghold, so his misunderstanding was understandable. Just as Kim Oheung was about to ask what he meant, Jang Obok sprang at him like a nimble tiger.
“Hey!”
Kim Oheung was caught off guard, but he soon realized that Jang Obok was a formidable fighter not to be underestimated. He steadied himself and began counterattacking.
“Even if you listen to someone, you should hear him out to the end!”
“No need for words! Shut up, you thug!”
Kim Oheung could not help but feel frustrated. He had been branded a thug out of nowhere. But he quickly calculated that the first step toward convincing Jang Obok was to knock him down.
“Take that!”
Thud! Bam! Thud!
Before long, the two tiger-like men tangled, the sounds of their blows echoing through the narrow alley.
Squeeze.
“Aaaargh!”
“It won’t fester. But you won’t be able to hold a sword again.”
Jo Won gave a bitter smile as he watched the Songpa Gang’s Geomgye men tremble before him, crawling away even if they had to drag themselves. The Geomgye members who had charged at Jo Won with such confidence were all in similar condition.
“Ugh…”
“Argh…”
Blood had spattered here and there, but none of the Geomgye men were bleeding profusely. That was because Jo Won knew they had not learned martial arts and had shown mercy in his strikes.
“Consider yourselves lucky that only your tendons were severed. If it had been anyone else instead of me, you would not be alive.”
The same would have been true if they had run into any martial artist. The Geomgye men were, at best, third-rate fighters. If this had been the Central Plains instead of Joseon, and another martial artist instead of Jo Won had been here, the stink of blood would have filled the air in every direction.
Drawing a sword on someone required that much resolve.
Jo Won had sent the Hangang Gang back with all four limbs intact but severed the Geomgye men’s wrist tendons because they were far more dangerous villains than the Hangang Gang’s thugs.
Besides, Jo Won did not want scum like this infesting a place where he might end up staying.
“Ihyeon, Chilpae, and Jongno…”
That was why Jo Won had deliberately asked Yellow Tooth about the other Geomgye members and thugs. It was not because Jo Won was some great paragon of justice. He simply hated having noise in his own front yard.
More importantly, the Songpa Gang had to be punished for using even children to rob and harm people, as they had earlier.
Clatter, clatter.
The Songpa Gang’s Geomgye men who had attacked him would never hold a sword again. That might make earning a living difficult, but was Jo Won supposed to take responsibility for that too?
They had merely received payment for the karma they had accumulated through their own actions.
“Move aside.”
Jo Won left the trembling Geomgye men crawling off to the side and exited their den. But just then, sounds from ahead reached his ears.
“Damn!”
“Not bad!”
Boom! Boom!
Wham! Wham!
He could hear the sounds of flesh colliding and the two fighters exchanging attacks and defenses. A glint appeared in Jo Won’s eyes. He pulled the cart, with one man seated in front and another in back, toward the source of the noise.
“Hey, Mister!!!”
When Jo Won appeared, Gaettongi, who had been watching the duel between Jang Obok and Kim Oheung from one side of the alley, raised his hand and called out to him.
When Jo Won saw Gaettongi, he realized that one of the two men who had stopped fighting so hard was the person Gaettongi had said he would bring.
“How did you get out? Are you okay, Mister?”
“I’m fine. But—”
“I told you to listen to what people say! Why would I be one of the Songpa Gang’s Geomgye?!”
Before Jo Won could say anything, Kim Oheung shouted angrily at Jang Obok. Both men’s backs were drenched with sweat.
They were evenly matched.
Jang Obok and Kim Oheung were such equal opponents that whenever one landed a blow, the other returned one in kind, and neither gave up even a single step.
“Big Brother! That’s the man!”
Just then, the Hangang Gang Chief pointed at Jo Won. When Kim Oheung turned to look at him, Jo Won tilted his head.
“Didn’t you say he had been dragged away by the Geomgye?”
Jang Obok saw Jo Won standing there perfectly fine and looked back at Gaettongi. But Gaettongi had no idea why Jo Won was unharmed, either.
“If you’re looking for the thugs, they’re inside.”
Jo Won answered calmly. Kim Oheung whipped his head around to look at the Hangang Gang Chief.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that, Big Brother? I swear that man was the thief…”
“You lied to me, you bastard?!”
Kim Oheung strode over to the Hangang Gang Chief, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him off the ground. He met the terrified chief’s eyes, then slammed him into the dirt.
“Urk!”
“Don’t ever let me see you again! If I catch sight of you even once, I’ll cripple you!”
Kim Oheung shouted and snarled. The moment he looked into Jo Won’s eyes, he had instantly realized that Jo Won was absolutely no thief.
“Since fate has brought us together, let’s introduce ourselves. My name is Jo Won.”
Jo Won smiled gently as he looked at Kim Oheung and Jang Obok. Jang Obok had noticed Jo Won’s extraordinary nature just as Kim Oheung had.
“I’m…”
Just as Jang Obok was about to answer, Gaettongi suddenly cut in.
“Why don’t we go back to our tavern and catch up over there? Please?”
Even in a moment like this, he was still trying to drum up business for his own tavern. Jo Won let out a laugh. Since Gaettongi had brought the people he promised to find help, Jo Won figured there was no harm in going to the tavern.
“Very well. You two should come along. I’ll buy you a drink.”
At the mention of a drink, Kim Oheung and Jang Obok began salivating. Neither of them could resist alcohol.
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Jo Won’s clear laughter rang out above their heads.