Chapter 05 - The Invincible Porter (3)
Chui bypassed the main gate of Hojung Gate and headed for the rear entrance.
He could have easily entered through the front by showing the gold plaque he had received from the Howling Tiger Escort Agency's captain, but… doing so would greatly restrict his actions later on.
Just as he was pondering how to get inside.
…*Creak!*
The rear gate suddenly burst open, and someone rushed out.
“You bastard! What took you so long!”
A tall, fat boy with a fierce-looking face.
He abruptly seized Chui by the scruff of his neck and dragged him through the rear gate of Hojung Gate.
“This is why you can’t trust beggars with anything! I took you in because you looked like you had nowhere to go! I mean, I told you to clean up some horse dung, and you couldn't even stand that, so you ran off!? Where did the rest of your friends go!? Huh!?”
It seemed there was some misunderstanding, but Chui offered no rebuttal.
The large boy continued to berate Chui.
“Listen up. I am Woo Dong-won, the great Hojung Gate's honorary stable master. From now on, you'll be managing the stables under me. It’s nothing much. Just clean the horse dung on time and feed them on time. If you do that well, you’ll at least get to eat cold leftovers for three meals a day. How about it? Much better than living as a beggar, right? So stop trying to run away and work hard, you ungrateful brat!”
At Woo Dong-won’s words, Chui glanced down at himself.
His clothes had indeed gotten quite dirty on the way here.
So much so that he could be mistaken for a beggar boy who did day labor for a meal.
Woo Dong-won grumbled as he pushed Chui’s back.
“Kids these days have no grit. Compared to being a wandering beggar, working as a servant at Hojung Gate is practically paradise. Tsk, tsk!”
Soon, Chui was led to the most remote part of the Hojung Gate estate.
It was where the stables were located.
Woo Dong-won said to Chui.
“You remember all the details I told you the day before yesterday, right?”
“I do not.”
“You do not… know? You’re speaking rather informally, aren’t you?”
As Chui remained silent, Woo Dong-won tilted his head, wondering if he had misheard.
Finally, the boy began his explanation.
“Aish, you forgot already? You dimwit. That’s why you’re a beggar. You sleep in one of the stalls over there, and for food, you just scavenge whatever we leave behind. Is that so hard to remember?”
“……”
“The horses are expensive, so specialists look after them. All guys like us have to do is clean up dung and give them food. Don’t even go near the horses unless you want to get kicked in the head and die.”
Finally, Woo Dong-won poked Chui’s forehead with his finger.
“We’re basically surplus labor. But the Hojung Gate Master showed his grace and hired a bunch of starving kids from the neighborhood. So don’t run off just because the work is hard. Do it properly. Got it… huh?”
But Woo Dong-won couldn’t finish his sentence.
*Clatter- clatter- Crash!*
It was because a horse suddenly kicked down the stable door and charged in.
“Whoa!? Aaargh!”
Chui deftly moved aside, but Woo Dong-won was grazed by a hoof, and his leg was broken.
“Aigoo!”
Woo Dong-won clutched his leg and rolled on the ground.
“……”
Chui turned his head.
A large black steed was snorting inside the stable.
It was a fine horse with skin like stone, bones like iron, and a frame much larger than other horses.
And at that moment, the owner of that fine horse was chuckling outside the stable.
“That one, really. It’s worth its high price. Maybe because it cost as much as a tiled-roof house, it’s quite hard to tame~”
“Young Master. But is this alright? It seems one of the stable hands was injured.”
“Aren’t they just like dogs anyway? I can just pay for the dog. What’s the big deal? Just think of it as an extra dog-meat day this summer. Hahaha-”
A young nobleman in silk clothes and a man who appeared to be his bodyguard were conversing.
A few of the stable boys supported Woo Dong-won, muttering in low voices.
“It’s Young Master Jo Tae-beom from the Jo family again.”
“Young Master my ass. That lecher.”
“What kind of trouble is he here to cause now?”
Chui followed the stable boys’ gazes.
Jo Tae-beom of the Jo family.
He was a young man with a sleek face, thick eyebrows, deep double eyelids, and profound eyes.
Jo Tae-beom covered half his face with a folding fan and spoke.
“It stinks of horse dung, so let’s hurry to the inner chambers. I feel like my clothes are getting dirty just from the gazes of these lowly creatures.”
They were about to leave the stables and head for the inner courtyard.
Just then.
“I hurried out hearing a guest had arrived, but I did not realize it was Young Master Jo.”
Someone stood in front of Jo Tae-beom, blocking his path.
A middle-aged man with a tiger-like appearance and a long beard.
He was none other than the Master of Hojung Gate, Ho Yeon-am.
Ho Yeon-am’s eyes, as he looked at Jo Tae-beom, were filled with displeasure.
“What business brings Young Master Jo here?”
At length, Jo Tae-beom casually cupped his fist in greeting.
“Why else would I visit my in-laws, Father-in-law? I came to see my future wife.”
“If you are referring to my Yeyang, I have never accepted the marriage proposal.”
“Not yet, that is. I intend to marry her when Lady Ho turns seventeen.”
“……”
Ho Yeon-am’s eyes widened as he glared at Jo Tae-beom.
Jo Tae-beom averted his gaze with a slick smile.
“The rumor has already spread throughout the town. That Lady Ho and I will hold our wedding ceremony in a year. The local children have even made a song about it. ‘Lady Ho of Hojung Gate~ has a secret mate~ Young Master Jo~ she embraces in the night~’”
“I suspect that rumor was started by you, Young Master Jo. To ruin my daughter’s marriage prospects.”
“How could that be? What would I have to gain by going to such lengths to take a daughter of the Hojung Gate, a family far beneath the prestige of my Jo family, as my wife….”
It was at that moment.
“Since it seems neither of us has anything to gain, it is absurd for there to be any talk of marriage.”
A sharp voice came from behind Ho Yeon-am.
Presently, a woman emerged from the inner courtyard.
She was at an age between a girl and a woman.
A girl with hair like black silk, skin as white as jade, half-moon-shaped black eyebrows, eyelashes long enough to catch snow, and eyes as large and clear as a lake, made her appearance.
Ho Yeyang.
The apple of Hojung Gate’s eye.
The one and only daughter of the Hojung Gate Master.
She spoke in an icy tone.
“I do not care for public opinion. Therefore, Young Master Jo, you should look for a marriage partner elsewhere.”
“But, you know how terrifying rumors can be….”
“There is no need to hear any more of this. I will not marry you, Young Master Jo, nor anyone else from the Jo family. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
A clear order of dismissal.
Ho Yeon-am and Ho Yeyang promptly turned and disappeared.
Left alone after being blatantly ignored, Jo Tae-beom smirked.
“……For a third-rate sect that’s so poor it’s about to collapse, you’re still as stiff-necked as ever.”
“Young Master. What should we do?”
“Well, didn’t we just stop by for a bit of fun on our way to the brothel? Let’s go back. For today, at least.”
Jo Tae-beom slung an arm around his bodyguard’s shoulder and grinned.
“By the way, did you see her? Ho Yeyang.”
“Today was the first time I have seen Lady Ho’s jade-like face.”
“What did you think?”
“Honestly, my heart stopped the moment I saw her. She is so beautiful she doesn’t seem human. Of all the people I have seen in my life, she is the woman who best fits the description ‘a face like a flower and a form like the moon.’”
“Right? A beauty that could topple nations, just as the rumors say, isn’t she?”
“I think the rumors fail to do her justice.”
“Indeed. There’s a reason I’m so obsessed.”
Jo Tae-beom smiled slyly and continued.
“Then you must also understand why I described Ho Yeyang’s appearance as a beauty that could topple nations, right?”
“A face that could ruin a country… I see. I think I understand.”
The bodyguard nodded, looking around at the entire Hojung Gate.
Jo Tae-beom picked up the thread.
“When a beautiful woman has no money and no power, she becomes unhappy. Ho Yeyang’s misfortune all stems from her own face. She’s too beautiful for a daughter of a place like Hojung Gate. Isn’t that why she’s being targeted by a scoundrel like me? It’s a disaster she brought upon herself, is what I’m saying~”
“That is also true. To be targeted by the greatest lecher in the world, Young Master Jo, Lady Ho’s future looks quite grim.”
“Hahahaha! You’re one to talk, spending half your salary at the brothel!”
Jo Tae-beom and his bodyguard bantered back and forth as they returned to the stable.
Perhaps because of the earlier commotion, all the stable hands had long since fled.
“Heave-ho. To the brothel!”
Jo Tae-beom leaped onto his black steed, which he had left in the stable.
But what was this? The spirited black horse, despite having Jo Tae-beom on its back, simply stood still without any reaction.
“What’s with this one? Why is it just standing there? Let’s go.”
Jo Tae-beom looked down at the black horse with a puzzled expression.
A foreign steed purchased for the price of a tiled-roof house.
This precious treasure, which would normally bolt forward with a single pull of the reins, was unusually calm today.
“What is it? Is it sick?”
The bodyguard touched the horse’s face.
At that very moment.
*Gurgle…*
The black horse suddenly foamed at the mouth, and its eyes rolled back.
And then.
*Thud!*
It collapsed sideways, its tongue lolling out, and died.
* * *
Chui stood at a distance, watching the inside of the stable.
He could see Jo Tae-beom and his bodyguard stamping their feet as they looked at the fallen horse.
It seemed they were examining the horse’s entire body to figure out why it had died.
“A futile effort.”
They would never find out the reason for the horse’s death.
Because the one who killed the horse was Chui himself.
*Drip- drip-*
Blood dripped from the horse’s liver in Chui’s hand.
Having killed countless horses on the battlefield, Chui knew more than thirty-three ways to kill one without leaving a single visible wound.
One of them was to insert an oiled hand into the horse's anus and pull out its liver.
‘Fox Claw Art. The technique of the vixen.’
It was one of the miscellaneous skills he had learned in the past, back when he was a low-ranking soldier rolling in the muck of the battlefield.
The soldier named ‘Maegu’ who had taught him this used to sneak into the stables and eat the livers of the warhorses whenever their food supplies ran out and he was starving.
‘He was caught and beheaded for it, his head displayed on a pike for three hundred days… but, well, anyway.’
Chui stared blankly at Jo Tae-beom, who was grumbling as he left the stable.
“That must be him. The lecherous only son of the Jo family.”
He knew from what Ho Yeyang had told him in the past.
He knew that the Jo family was the very reason for the fall of the Hojung Gate.
The Jo family had commissioned a place called the Black Way Guild to attack the Hojung Gate, and the Hojung Gate had vanished from the world.
Ho Yeyang had said it was a tragedy born from a mere conflict of interest between the Jo family and the Hojung Gate… but the real reason had been Jo Tae-beom, who coveted Ho Yeyang’s beauty.
It wasn’t certain if Ho Yeyang herself knew this fact.
But Chui was certain that he, no, *she*, must have known.
‘I see now what was in her heart when she seared her own face with fire.’
Burning her face and swallowing charcoal to ruin her voice wasn’t just to change her appearance.
It was because she had come to think of her own beauty as a curse.
Thud-
His thoughts concluded, Chui quietly began to walk.
He started to trail Jo Tae-beom, who had disappeared over the horizon.
Thud- Thud-
When you meet your friend's enemy, what need is there for words?
Thud- Thud- Thud-
It is a matter to be shown through action.
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