A Tale Of A Scribe Who Retires To The Countryside [EN]: Chapter 318

318. Shifting Tides

Stepping out of the Changgak Pavilion [a traditional Korean pavilion], Son Bin breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Whew, that was a close one.’

Meeting Second Prince Yi Hwang was a rather impromptu decision.

He was in the middle of removing his makeup with Biyeon’s help, as planned, when Yi Hwang suddenly appeared.

It was unexpected, but he saw it as an opportunity. The conversation was satisfactory as well.

However, he didn’t expect Yi Hwang to bring up the story of ‘Son Ryeo’ on the spot, and with such a serious expression.

‘I feel a bit sorry, but…’

The look in Yi Hwang’s eyes as he promised to make her empress showed that he was sincere.

As a man himself, Son Bin couldn’t help but feel a pang in his heart. He even felt a slight sense of guilt.

But there was nothing he could do. It wasn’t like he could say, ‘I am Son Ryeo,’ or ‘Son Ryeo is a man.’

Suddenly, he heard Biyeon’s soft voice from inside.

Biyeon was telling Yi Hwang that ‘Son Ryeo had refused the meeting.’ Yi Hwang, already expecting that outcome, would have no choice but to turn away dejectedly.

‘Anyway, that’s a relief.’

Son Bin truly thought it was a relief. Both that he didn’t have to cross-dress anymore and that he was able to tell Yi Hwang about the Beoncheonji scheme.

This would somewhat alleviate any resistance or wariness Yi Hwang might have if he learned about ‘External Affairs.’

‘Now, then.’

Son Bin subtly touched the Seon Sword Baekro, which he had recovered from the Chilhyeon Pavilion.

Feeling the faint warmth at his fingertips, Son Bin carefully surveyed his surroundings.

He was currently near the railing on the second floor of the Changgak Pavilion. Below, the Geumui guards [Imperial Guards] were keeping a distance, watching in all directions.

Careful not to attract their attention, Son Bin quietly raised one hand.

Swish.

As soon as he raised his hand, a figure silently descended in front of him.

Clutching a sword in her arms, her face as expressionless as ever, the barefoot woman was none other than Geomhui.

There wasn’t even a hint of her presence, making him wonder if he was mistaken, but the chill that ran through his skin confirmed that she was indeed there.

Son Bin gave a light nod. He had already asked her, Geomhui, for help before entering the palace.

Geomhui slightly lowered her head in response. It was a significant improvement from when they first met in the Snow Mountains.

Sarak.

But only for a moment, Geomhui unhesitatingly wrapped her arms around Son Bin’s waist. And before Son Bin could even feel embarrassed, she leaped into the air.

Whoosh.

‘Gasp.’

Son Bin sucked in a breath. In an instant, he and Geomhui were standing on the roof of the Changgak Pavilion. With a single leap, she had reached the roof.

Thud.

And that wasn’t all. With a light stomp, Geomhui sent them soaring high into the dark night sky.

Pararararak.

The green roof of the Changgak Pavilion quickly receded, and a fierce wind battered them relentlessly.

Unconsciously, Son Bin tightened his arms around Geomhui. He felt her flinch.

“Why?”

Geomhui’s soft voice was right next to his ear. Sounding slightly reproachful, her voice made Son Bin quickly shake his head.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Son Bin slowly loosened his grip. Even as he did so, the wind rushed past his ears.

Parararak.

‘Now that I think about it, this is similar to before…’

It was similar to when Saja Hyuk took a drunk Son Bin out before.

The difference was that, unlike back then when he was completely out of it, he was now getting used to it quickly.

Son Bin looked down at the roofs and walls of the palace passing beneath him. Geomhui’s leaps were so incredible that he couldn’t help but marvel.

Whoosh, whirl.

A group of Geumui guards with torches occasionally passed below, but the security wasn’t as tight as he had expected. They must have concentrated the Geumui guards on guarding the palace walls and protecting key figures.

“I have a question.”

Suddenly, he heard Geomhui’s voice in his ear. Son Bin looked up to see Geomhui’s profile, her hair fluttering in the wind.

“Can I ask?”

Son Bin nodded.

“Yes. Anything…”

“Name.”

Geomhui turned her head to look at Son Bin. Her large eyes stared straight at Son Bin, who wore a puzzled expression.

“Why did you change it?”

Son Bin gave a wry smile. She must have seen the other entertainers calling him ‘Son Ryeo’ when he was cross-dressed.

“I didn’t change it. I was just using a different name temporarily out of necessity. I won’t be using that name again.”

Calmly and firmly, Son Bin explained to Geomhui.

“Is that so?”

Geomhui seemed convinced and turned her head back to look ahead. Her white feet kicked off the massive golden roof.

Thud.

“It wasn’t bad.”

Geomhui’s indifferent voice brushed past Son Bin’s ear as he held onto her tightly.

“Son Ryeo, too.”

‘Ugh.’

Son Bin quickly looked up at Geomhui. As always, she was looking ahead with an expressionless face.

But was it just his imagination that her cold face seemed to be faintly smiling?

“Ahem.”

Feeling somewhat awkward, Son Bin cleared his throat and turned his head away.

He thought about saying, ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ but if he did, Geomhui would probably say, ‘I was told not to say anything.’

She didn’t show it, but Geomhui was secretly close to Hwasa and Hyeokryeon Seohwa.

‘Anyway, Suyeon and Wol-a already found out.’

Now, all he hoped was that Dang Wol-a wouldn’t create any paintings.

It was likely a futile hope.

Whoosh.

With the sound of the wind rushing past his ears, the two headed towards the Emperor’s bedchamber.

It seemed like they would arrive soon, but both Son Bin and Geomhui knew that wouldn’t be the case.

‘This is!’

Oong.

“It appeared.”

Son Bin’s feeling of unfamiliarity and eeriness, Baekro’s soft hum, and Geomhui’s quiet words occurred almost simultaneously.

Shh.

Geomhui plunged straight towards the ground. Son Bin was disoriented by the sudden movement, but he could still make out the figure of a person standing on the ground.

Hair swept back to reveal his forehead, a crimson official robe covering his body from neck to toe, and eyes glowing with a green light.

The old man, resembling an elderly high-ranking eunuch, stood alone in the darkness.

He held a strangely shaped staff in one hand and extended the other towards Son Bin and Geomhui, the sticky energy flowing from his hand particularly intense even in the darkness.

“That guy.”

“Yes. It seems so.”

At Geomhui’s words, Son Bin nodded. The moment he saw those green eyes, he was certain.

“That is the one who created the Hocheonsamsinwi.”

Parararak.

Geomhui and Son Bin landed lightly on the ground. At the same time, Son Bin’s eyes were sinking deeply.

*

*

*

“Ready!”

At the captain’s command, the Geumui guards on the wall simultaneously nocked new arrows. The strong arms of the Geumui guards pulled the bowstrings taut, their intense gazes fixed on the darkness.

“Stop!”

The Geumui guards flinched and turned at the sharp voice. A group of people cloaked in black and red robes were climbing onto the wall.

The captain immediately recognized them. They were the experts belonging to the Dongchang [secret agency]. The captain ordered the Geumui guards,

“Lower your bows.”

Following the captain’s order, the Geumui guards lowered their bows. The captain himself slowly released the taut bowstring back to its original position.

One could hold the arrow in the hand holding the bow and release the empty string, but that would damage the bow. Not releasing an empty string was common sense for archers.

Meanwhile, the Dongchang experts who approached the captain scanned outside the wall with sharp eyes.

Sure enough, a black shadow was gracefully cutting through the night sky across the moat.

Pararak.

Pressing down slightly on a bamboo hat with one hand, the figure’s clothes fluttered under the moonlight, making it look like a painting.

The soft curves revealed in the moonlight made it easy to guess that the figure was a woman.

“Is that the one?”

The voice of the Dongchang expert was particularly sharp.

“Yes, it is.”

The captain replied immediately. His voice contained the animosity towards the black shadow that had been toying with them.

However, apart from the animosity, the assessment was extremely calm and collected.

“They are truly formidable. Be especially careful…”

“Hmph!”

The Dongchang expert scoffed, ostentatiously shaking his arm and putting his hands behind his back. The black and red robe fluttered under the torchlight.

“What’s so formidable about those who dare to commit such bizarre acts in front of the Imperial Palace?”

He spoke without even trying to hide his arrogance. The Dongchang expert looked down at the captain with a sneer.

“How many are there?”

It was a sudden question, but the captain understood.

“Five, or perhaps six. But there may be others who have not yet revealed themselves.”

“Hmph, it’s truly pathetic that the Imperial Geumui guards were helpless against such a small number.”

The captain gritted his teeth at the blatant mockery. But he couldn’t dare to object.

“Let’s go.”

The Dongchang expert said to those standing behind him. And they leaped off the wall before the captain could stop them.

“Oh!”

Parararak.

The five Dongchang experts fell outside the wall, their robes fluttering. The captain and the Geumui guards watched with surprised eyes, leaning over the wall.

Thud, thud.

As the captain and guards watched, the five Dongchang experts landed lightly on the ground. And immediately, they leaped and dashed across the bridge over the moat.

The Geumui guards let out soft exclamations at the sight, and the captain also breathed a sigh of relief.

‘As expected.’

The Dongchang experts were on a different level from them.

Moreover, it wasn’t just those five who had stepped forward. Soon, an accurate report would be delivered, but it was clear that five experts had been dispatched in each of the three directions, at least fifteen in total.

‘The Commander must be determined.’

The outcome of experts’ battles could be decided by the smallest things. If they overwhelmed the enemy in numbers, suppressing them was a foregone conclusion.

The captain followed the Dongchang experts with eyes mixed with anticipation and anxiety. The other Geumui guards also couldn’t take their eyes off the experts’ backs.

*

*

*

Hwasa was in a bad mood. It wasn’t because of Dang Wol-a’s suggestion to move slowly and conspicuously. Rather, she liked that idea more than she expected.

She had also gotten used to the arrows raining down. After deflecting the arrows with her Sosu [a type of sword], it started to feel like a game, and she even found it secretly enjoyable.

What put Hwasa in a bad mood was that only three of the fifteen experts who came out of the Imperial Palace were chasing her.

‘Why only three? Do I look weak? Surely more didn’t go to Wol-a or Suyeon, did they?’

No matter how much she grumbled inwardly, the Dongchang experts following her wouldn’t answer.

“Stop right there!”

Peeping!

With a sharp voice, an eerie energy pressed down on her back. Hwasa spun around in the air and waved her hand.

Woong.

Kkakakang.

The sharp throwing knives that collided with Hwasa’s Sosu made a sharp sound and bounced off. Hwasa said with a look of regret.

“Ah, I should have caught them and thrown them back!”

She had been deflecting arrows so much that she had reflexively deflected them.

But the Dongchang expert who threw the knives was even more surprised. The inner force contained in those knives was by no means light.

Thud.

Hwasa landed lightly on a large roof. The three Dongchang experts immediately surrounded her as they landed.

A look of triumph flashed in the eyes of the Dongchang experts. They thought that Hwasa had no choice but to engage them because she couldn’t shake them off.

Swish.

Hwasa slowly looked around at the three experts surrounding her with a haughty attitude.

“I don’t know if it will work out. But well, it will somehow.”

Hwasa’s shrug was very sensual. The deeply pressed black bamboo hat and the black robe covering her body couldn’t hide her charm.

“I’m warning you in advance, you better be careful.”

Hwasa said, her red lips moving under the pressed bamboo hat. The three Dongchang experts who surrounded her scoffed.

“Hmph! How dare you…”

But Hwasa ignored their sneers and slowly raised her arm to the sky.

Swish.

Her white finger was pointing at the moon shining in the night sky. The full blue moonlight seemed to cover the whole world.

“It’s night, right now.”

Hwasa’s red lips, revealed under the bamboo hat, sparkled seductively under the moonlight.

∴

While the three Dongchang experts were chasing Hwasa, the other three Geumui experts were following a woman with her face covered in a veil.

The woman, with a particularly slender figure, lightly fluttered her veil and landed on a large pavilion in a secluded garden.

Thud.

It was a movement so graceful that it could be called elegant, but the Geumui experts felt an eerie energy from it.

It seemed natural at first glance, but her movements were very unconventional. No matter how skilled one was, it was impossible to land so lightly from that height.

Looking closely, everything from the fluttering of her clothes to the veil was extraordinary.

Tap, tap.

The three Geumui experts quickly surrounded the veiled woman.

But the veiled woman didn’t say anything. She didn’t even look at the Geumui experts. She just looked up at the bright moon, as if she were a woman taking a walk alone on a quiet night.

One of the Geumui experts, exchanging glances with the others, opened his mouth.

“Who are you?”

His heavy voice, filled with inner force, echoed around. But the woman showed no reaction. It was as if everything was blocked by the veil.

The Geumui expert frowned and spoke again to the veiled woman.

“How dare you commit such bizarre acts in front of the Imperial Palace…”

“Wait.”

A hurried voice interrupted him. It was another Geumui expert on the left.

“We’re surrounded.”

“What?”

The Geumui expert turned around. And only then did he feel the strange presences surrounding them.

‘When!’

He gritted his teeth and stared intently into the dark sky.

He couldn’t see anything, but he knew for sure. Beyond the darkness, there were definitely small, eerie energies that seemed to prick his skin.

Moreover, there weren’t just one or two. The energies surrounding the three Geumui experts numbered as many as nine.

Oong, oong.

Soft weeping sounds spread around, as if they no longer intended to hide.

Another expert on the right also looked around with a bewildered expression. Then, he noticed something and was startled.

“Gasp!”

He said with an expression of disbelief.

“H-, how did they apply Hadok [a type of poison] so quickly…”

At the word ‘Hadok,’ the other two immediately gathered their inner force. At that moment, they felt a tingling sensation and a subtle pain near their lower abdomen.

‘It’s poison!’

The Geumui experts couldn’t believe this situation.

They were Geumui experts who had reached the level of Sword Energy Manifestation. Ordinary poisons could never threaten them.

But now they were clearly poisoned. And with symptoms they had never heard of before.

The Geumui experts couldn’t hide their bewildered expressions. The composure they always maintained, the cold expressions that didn’t reveal their emotions, had disappeared.

“As long as you don’t kill them.”

At the small, delicate voice, the three Geumui experts turned their heads. The veiled woman, who had been looking at the moon, was now looking at them.

“It didn’t matter, right?”

A cold chill ran down the spines of the Geumui experts. They could clearly tell that the eyes beyond the barely visible veil were angry.

Uuuuuung.

The weeping sounds surrounding the Geumui experts grew louder and louder. Moreover, the Geumui experts could clearly feel those eerie energies beginning to rotate at a furious speed.

“Because of you.”

The veiled woman’s voice was no longer audible to the Geumui experts. Surviving was now the most pressing issue.

“I couldn’t see the Young Master’s performance.”

Swish.

The veiled woman, Dang Wol-a’s small hand shyly revealed itself. But when that hand was lightly waved, the Geumui experts couldn’t help but shout.

“Evade!”

A desperate voice tore through the darkness. But their voices were vainly swallowed by the sharp explosion that followed.