Chapter 83: The Place that the hidden message led me to (2)
Translator: hwarang
Editor: Kidyeon
I headed straight home. Since everyone was busy with their own tasks, it wouldn"t matter if I left Mu Han alone for a bit.
I got the feeling that I needed to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, thus I decided to go straight to Elder Jong right after meeting my parents.
"What is it?" Elder Jong asked when I laid a couple of gifts in front of him.
"Just some good medicine. And these are some new clothes for you, so that you"ll have some to wear in the spring."
"Why are you giving me these things?"
"Why? They"re my gifts to you."
"Gifts?"
"They"re gifts of grat.i.tude for you giving me your wonderful disciple."
Elder Jong laughed. "Ha! Stop trying to impress me. Get to the point."
"So you really know how to read someone."
He looked down at the gifts and replied, "You were extremely obvious with these."
"Hahaha." I gave him a piece of paper with the encoded text written on it.
"Please decode this for me."
After looking at the paper Elder Jong replied, "This looks pretty challenging."
In other words, it excited him to solve such a thing.
Kong Soo Chan had said that he"d learned how to decode things from his master. Originally, Elder Jong had wanted to become a scholar, but somehow, he"d ended up becoming our financial manager. One day, I wanted to hear his story.
"Come back after dinner."
"That early? Really…."
"Make sure to bring a bottle of wine with you."
"I will."
He then asked me, "How is he?"
Although he was cold and stiff, he was still a caring master.
"He"s doing well."
"Alright."
I left Elder Jong"s room.
***
These days, Song Hwa Rin was training from sunrise to sunset.
She"d even told her father that she was going to temporarily stop learning the family business so that she could focus on her training.
Which martial artist family wouldn"t allow this? Song Woo Kyung had allowed her to focus on training right away.
After that, she"d begun training the martial art that I"d taught her.
Although she was still only at practicing the basic steps, she was able to feel how profound and different this martial art was. The more she practiced it, the more she liked it.
She jumped from the floor and swung her sword.
Shing!
Her movement was fast yet precise; gentle yet firm.
Even though she"d only been practicing for a short time, it looked as if she"d been practicing for a long time. This sword art was a high-level sword art, yet she"d been able to a.s.similate it rather quickly because I"d taught it to her.
If someone else had taught it to her, it would have taken her years to reach where she was now.
"Really, he"s…"
She didn"t understand him. She became confused whenever she thought about him. When she turned around, she screamed in surprise.
"Ahh!"
The person who was standing behind her was exactly the person she"d been thinking about, Byuk Lee Dan. She was even more surprised because it was me.
"Sorry. I didn"t mean to scare you."
"No, it"s fine. However, why are you here?"
"Because I need to do something at home. I must return as soon as possible."
"Oh."
"However, I have until dinner-"
Before I was able to finished she cut me off and said, "Wait for me, I"ll go change."
"Alright."
She quickly left the practice ground. After she was out of my sight, she sped up her steps as she rushed to her room. She had so many things left that she had to do. She needed to take a bath, put on good clothing, and put on makeup.
Half an hour later, two people were walking down the street together.
Some of the pa.s.sersby stopped to stare at her; they were jealous of me when they saw Song Hwa Rin. However, I didn"t feel bad at all. Rather, I was enjoying the attention. I enjoyed their jealous glances at me and her.
Today was a good day to go out on a stroll. The skies were clear, and the birds were chirping.
It seems that winter is over, and that spring is on its way.
"How is Mu Han?"
"Way more complicated than this place. There are tons more people."
"There must be a lot of girls prettier than me."
"Probably. Yeah. What?"
Surprised at her attack, I turned around.
She continued on as if she was agreeing with me, "Yeah, there are probably many girls who"re prettier than me, considering the fact that it"s such a big city."
"Someone prettier than you…"
Seeing her act like this made me want to tease her. There was no one I knew who was prettier than her.
"There are a few here and there."
She instantly began to pout.
"Hahaha."
Knowing that I was only teasing her, she laughed along with me. This was the first time that she"d looked jealous in front of me. She seems to shows me a new side of her every time I meet her.
We reached the end of the street while talking about various things.
"Where should we go now?"
"I don"t know?"
This was the first time that I realized that I"d gone on a date like this with a beauty.
"We should walk around a bit more."
"Sounds good."
We walked back the way we"d come. And when we reached the other end, we went back again.
Going back and forth like this wasn"t boring since we didn"t have a destination in mind.
By the time I"d finished spending time with Song Hwa Rin and come home, Elder Jong had already finished decoding the message.
"I"ve decoded it." He said as he handed me the piece of paper.
Ha Nam Castle, Bang Sung, Chu Manor, any time, any month.
"Any time, any month... wouldn"t that mean any time this month?"
"It"s going to occur exactly eight days from now."
So eight days from now, there was going to be some sort of meeting at the Chu Manor, which was located inside Bang Sung, near Ha Man Castle.
If it was somewhere near Ha Nam Castle, I could make it in time.
"Thank you for helping me."
"What do you mean? But with this… could it be that… you"re doing something dangerous?"
"Who knows."
There was some worry present on his face. However, he didn"t express it and simply took the wine.
"Next time don"t take so long."
"Hahaha, it"s a bit late. You"re getting old."
"You rascal."
The next day, I said my farewells and left.
The place I was headed for was Ha Nam Castle.
***
When I arrived at Bang Sung, I asked around for the location of the Chu Manor, and discovered that it was located to the west.
With a different face, as well as different clothing, I headed to the Chu Manor. I put on a straw hat as well. Although most wouldn"t be able to force my hand, I put it on just in case. I didn"t know what I would be dealing with.
I saw more and more people as I neared the manor. There were both martial artists and non-martial artists. I sensed that these martial artists were pretty seasoned, and saw that these non-martial artists had pretty good clothing on.
There were even merchants with guards who had gifts on-hand.
I decided to ask someone what was going on. "Where"s everyone going?"
"Today is Lord Chu"s birthday."
Lord Chu"s birthday….
Birthdays are a good opportunity to hold meetings, as they won"t be suspected as much despite so many people being present.
"Where are you from?"
One of the receptionists asked me. I answered him by simply saying the name of the person that I"d killed, Jo Byuk. As the man wrote my name down, he looked at me with a strange look, but he couldn"t see what I looked because of my straw hat.
Despite that, I was able to enter as if nothing happened.
The banquet hall was full of people who were there to congratulate the lord. They were all chattering with each other while drinking wine and eating. I stood to the side and observed the room.
Why had Jo Byuk kept this secret letter?
After the banquet hall filled up, Lord Chu entered the room and welcomed everyone.
"You didn"t have to come to this old man"s birthday."
Afterwhich, someone from the crowd replied, "Of course we need to be here for the Lord of Bang Sung"s birthday."
"What if someone else heard this?"
"To us, you"re the big lord."
Everyone else in the room agreed with the speaker.
"Of course."
"Yes."
"Congratulations."
"Happy birthday."
The crowd was cheering for him.
"Thank you. Thank you all for coming to this old man"s birthday banquet. Because of all of you being here, I wouldn"t regret it even if I died tomorrow. Please enjoy the food and drinks, and have fun. Thank you all for coming a long way just for me."
The crowd cheered again.
"My Lord, you must live to be over hundred."
So far, it had just been a normal birthday banquet.
But something abnormal occurred with the appearance of two maids who approached me. "You are Lord Jo?"
"Yes."
They must"ve been keeping an eye on me from the moment I"d given my name to the receptionist.
"Please follow us." The maids led me away. Since there were so many people, most of them simply ignored us.
There was a single expert guarding the front of the building. From what I could see, he was someone on the same level as Yeom Hwa.
Why would such an expert be at a place like this?
I followed the maids inside the building. There were two others who"d arrived before me. It seems that they"d been invited here as well.
One of them was in their twenties, while the other was in his thirties. It seems that they both have a decent amount of skill.
Why had we arrived at such a place?
The door in front to the front of the building opened, and ten or so people entered. The person who was on the lead was the expert who"d been guarding the building, while the people who"d come with him seemed like they were also experts.
If the expert guarding the door was similar in power to Yeom Hwa, then these expert"s were at least at the level of the Divine Swords.
One Yeom Hwa and ten Divine Swords. This was certainly a rare sight.
The man proceeded to introduce himself. "I am Sim Hw.a.n.g."
He didn"t mention whether he was an expert from inside or from outside.
"Before we get started, I will verify the invitation."
Invitation?
I didn"t know what he invitation he wanted to verify, since I didn"t have a invitation.
Luckily Sim Hw.a.n.g took out a small piece of paper. I knew what it was at first glance.
It was the letter that Jo Byuk had had. So the invitation was that piece of paper.
So that was the reason that Jo Byuk had kept the paper.
Afterwards, Sim Hw.a.n.g set the paper inside a dish full of water, which in turn turned blue. It was probably smeared with a special chemical that allowed them to verify the paper.
When it was my turn, I dipped my paper into the water. When it turned blue as well, I returned, feeling relieved.
But as I was walking back-
Shiing!
Someone slashed at me with their sword, and I barely managed to dodge it.
Sim Hw.a.n.g stared at me, his eyes cold. "You are not Jo Byuk."
All the experts around me drew their weapons and surrounded me.
I replied in a cold voice, "You really don"t know the meaning of an invitation card. If you were already going to do something like this, there was no need for us to take out our invitation cards."