“Performers?”
Kim Oheung and Jang Obok narrowed their eyes when Usun suddenly butted in. Both Kim Oheung and Jang Obok knew about the Performers' Guild.
“Why would performers be interested in a tavern?”
When Jang Obok asked Usun, Usun spread both arms dramatically.
“Songpa Tavern is the perfect place for us performers to have ourselves a grand old time, sir.”
As he spoke, Usun stole glances at Jo Won, studying him from the corner of his eye. The Performers' Guild had already investigated Kim Oheung and Jang Obok down to how many pairs of undergarments they kept at home. But Jo Won was a face they had never seen before.
“But who might that gentleman be?”
“Tch. Why don't you get lost? Where do you think you're sneaking your way in?”
A man with a face no one had seen in Hanyang before had casually put down a gold piece to buy Songpa Tavern?
Usun felt intensely curious as he watched Jo Won. But Kim Oheung had become so sharp, as if he were that man's bodyguard, that Usun decided to pretend to be frightened for the time being.
“Oh, dear. Are you going to hit a performer?”
“Get lost!”
Just as Kim Oheung was rising from his seat, Jo Won spoke. Strangely enough, Kim Oheung hesitated and sat back down.
“Did you visit the Songpa Gang?”
Jo Won was looking at the tavern keeper, not Usun. The tavern keeper nodded.
“I asked them to save my baby.”
Jo Won nodded. Just then, Usun suddenly cut in and asked Jo Won,
“How did you know? That I visited the Songpa Gang?”
“Brother Jo, don't exchange words with a man like that. They peek around everywhere, then sell whatever they spy on. They're no better than the Songpa Gang.”
Usun protested with an aggrieved expression.
“Life's grown so harsh that we performers had to band together. How can you be so heartless?”
“You think I don't know?”
Jang Obok also glared at Usun with displeasure, just as Kim Oheung had.
“I know you lot stick your noses into every dispute over profits and sell information. You have information offices scattered all across the country, don't you? You make money off other people's misfortunes.”
“Is that all, Brother Jang? They even worm their way into street gangs and sell information here and there.”
Usun looked wounded. Jo Won stared at him for a moment, then shifted aside and pointed to the empty seat.
“Would you care to sit?”
“I'd be grateful for a drink.”
Usun dropped into the seat without a shred of shame. Kim Oheung and Jang Obok could only smack their lips in displeasure, since Jo Won, the owner of the seat, had given his permission.
“Where are you from?” “What's loaded in that cart?” “How old are you...?” “Are you really going to buy this tavern? Why?”
Once Jo Won had opened the door, Usun blatantly asked every question that came to mind. But Jo Won merely smiled and didn't answer him.
Instead, after listening to Usun for quite some time, Jo Won said,
“If you're an information broker, could you perhaps look into someone for me?”
“Of course. If there's information to be had, there's nothing I can't sell. So long as you pay me fairly.”
Usun never stopped studying Jo Won. He still hadn't discovered what made Jo Won special. But seeing how Kim Oheung and Jang Obok treated Jo Won as if he were their Big Brother, Usun knew there had to be something hidden beneath the surface.
‘He must be the one who did that to the Songpa Gang.’
But Usun had no idea what he had done to them. After searching the area, Usun had learned that Kim Oheung and Jang Obok had come no farther than the front of the Songpa Gang's headquarters.
Instead, he clearly remembered the cartwheel tracks stamped all the way across the Songpa Gang's front yard.
And that cart was parked inside the tavern.
‘A man carrying books on his back. Did the Songpa Gang lure him in for those books, only for him to take down every last one of them?’
No matter how rootless the Songpa Gang was as a branch of the Geomgye, every member carried a blade on his person. That was because they had a powerful patron backing them.
Kim Manseop of the river merchants.
He was the richest merchant among the river traders, possessing more grain-transport ships than anyone else. His influence was so immense that if he wished, the taxes and tenant rents coming up from the provinces could stop flowing as soon as tomorrow.
Kim Manseop, whose backing was said to make even the royal court and the yangban watch their step, was the Songpa Gang's patron.
‘Now that's information worth money.’
Usun's eyes flashed. He had realized that this information was worth more than anything he had ever handled before.
But at that very moment, Usun's eyes met Jo Woon's.
The instant his eyes met Jo Woon's, Usun felt his entire body stiffen.
Then Jo Woon blinked once, and Usun's body began moving again. But Usun's mind went blank. From that single exchange, he had instinctively sensed that Jo Won was no ordinary man.
“If you know anything about these people, no matter how minor, please tell me.”
Jo Won placed a slip of paper in Usun's hand with his partner's name and his retainers' names written on it. Jo Won's mind did not shine only when he practiced martial arts.
He had also displayed remarkable talent while learning the Joseon language and its script, to the point that he could speak and write no differently from a native Joseon person.
“Are you not going to take it?”
When Jo Won spoke to the dazed Usun, Usun finally snatched up the paper Jo Won had offered him.
“I-I understand. I'll contact you again...”
“And one more thing.”
Jo Won stopped Usun from rising with a single word.
“I would prefer it if nothing about me got out for the time being.”
Usun squeezed his eyes shut the moment Jo Won said that. He had thought the moment their eyes met had been his imagination, but it hadn't.
Jo Won had already seen through everything Usun intended to do.
Jo Won gave him a faint smile.
“I know information brokers can't be held in place with words alone. Here.”
As he spoke, Jo Won took out another gold piece. Kim Oheung and Jang Obok's eyes widened even further. They wondered just how many gold pieces that money pouch contained.
“Will this be enough?”
Usun swallowed hard as he stared at the gold piece. It wasn't because he coveted it. He was worried about what would happen after he accepted it.
‘Dangerous.’
Usun could feel that Jo Won was a dangerous man. Even now, the back of his neck prickled, and he wanted to get away from Jo Won as quickly as possible.
But he had no choice. Usun could do nothing but pick up the gold piece. Jo Won smiled faintly as he watched Usun take it.
“I wish to live in peace. So I trust you'll help me.”
The weight behind those words struck Kim Oheung, Jang Obok, and Usun all at once. Kim Oheung and Jang Obok grew curious about Jo Won, while Usun swallowed nervously.
He didn't know who Jo Won truly was, but he was a man who had lived an extraordinary life.
‘The Performers' Guild's very survival is at stake.’
Usun decided he had to hurry back and report this to the guild chief. He had approached Jo Won to learn about this outsider, but he felt as if he were leaving after sweating through a whole bucket.
“Oh. Aren't you going to buy the tavern?”
Jo Won asked Usun one final question. Usun gave an awkward smile, then looked at the tavern keeper and dipped his head.
“I hope you live well in your new home.”
The tavern keeper bowed deeply, and Usun vanished like the wind, as if someone might grab him if he lingered. Jang Obok watched him disappear, then clicked his tongue.
“What is the world coming to, that even performers like that are throwing themselves into the frenzy for money?”
“Indeed. People should live on money they've earned honestly through their own sweat.”
Kim Oheung and Jang Obok had recognized one another after their clash. And now that the slight misunderstanding between them had been neatly cleared up, they had grown close, calling each other Brother Kim and Brother Oh.
“Will you sell?”
“Yes. I'll sell.”
With a single gold piece, the tavern keeper could move to a place where Gaettongi could be raised properly, even if she couldn't buy an honorary title certificate.
It was better to move somewhere new than stay here and put both Gaettongi and herself in danger.
“I'll buy the household goods along with it.”
Jo Won said this as he took out several pieces of silver and held them out to the tavern keeper. In truth, the one nyang in gold that Jo Won had offered was valuable enough to buy a rice paddy.
The tavern keeper shook her head.
“This is too much. I can't accept it.”
“When Gaettongi grows into a fine young man, tell him to come find me and repay me.”
“...Yes, sir.”
At the mention of Gaettongi, the tavern keeper took the silver pieces. When it came to her son, the more money she had, the better.
“Before you leave, teach me how to run the tavern.”
Jo Won smiled as he spoke. The tavern keeper sat beside him and began explaining, while Kim Oheung and Jang Obok started emptying the bottles one after another.
Rrrrgh.
Hooowoo!
The night passed in its entirety, and morning came. Kim Oheung and Jang Obok had collapsed drunk on the tavern's raised wooden platform, while the tavern keeper had dragged her sleepy body into her room late at night.
They had said they would leave as soon as daylight came, so the place would probably grow hectic soon.
Jo Won slowly looked around the tavern, which was shaped like the letter ㄴ, and the fence surrounding it. There was a row of earthenware jars on one side, and a small backyard behind the tavern.
There were three rooms in all. Two were rented to travelers who paid to stay the night, while the tavern keeper and Gaettongi used the third.
“This is my home now.”
He had decided on it impulsively, but geographically, the place suited him perfectly. More than anything, he liked that it stood right against a hill where he could build a library without attracting attention.
With a little work, he could make an entrance and exit that people wouldn't be able to see.
“I should have learned formations and mechanisms, too.”
If he had known those two arts, he could have built the library with even greater certainty. But Jo Won excelled only with the sword; he had no skill in other practical matters.
Songpa Tavern was small and run-down beyond comparison with the manor Jo Won had lived in in the Central Plains. But now that he would be living alone instead of with eight people, he felt this size was just right.
He had already learned that making a place unnecessarily large only made it feel lonely.
“A tavern...”
Unlike his manor, this place came with a tavern attached. A tavern was like an inn, where people could pay for food and lodging.
Certainly, the tavern keeper had a real gift for cooking.
“Can I do this?”
The problem was that Jo Won was hopeless in the kitchen. More precisely, he had hardly ever cooked a meal with his own hands.
When sleeping outdoors, he had usually made do with dried rations, and whenever he returned to his manor, his partner or retainers prepared his food for him.
“Hmm...”
As Jo Won wondered whether he should hire someone and figure things out that way, he sensed Kim Oheung and Jang Obok stirring awake on the platform.
“I just have to give it a try.”
He decided to make the two men something to cure their hangovers and get their assessment. Then he rolled up both sleeves.