Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 160 - The Way I See You (3)
Chapter 160 – The Way I See You (3)
“…Are you insane?”
Watching the people carrying Peng Jin-yeong away shrink into the distance, Gwan Seo-ye spoke.
“Why?”
“What were you even thinking? He was obviously from the Hebei Peng Clan, and you started trouble with him by slapping the back of his hand first!”
“Should I not have?”
“Of course you shouldn’t have!”
“Then why did you goad him at the end?”
I let out a short laugh. To be honest, I didn’t think Gwan Seo-ye would actually be able to answer that. It had looked to me as though she’d simply lost her head in a flash of anger.
But unexpectedly, she answered cleanly and without hesitation.
“It was obvious he never cared about you in the first place. He was only interested in me. He only got interested in you after Jin Su-gwan said you weren’t a guard, but a branch master. It would’ve been bad if someone from the Peng Clan started taking an interest in you for no reason.”
“Were you always this thoughtful?”
I asked in a joking tone, suddenly embarrassed. But this time Gwan Seo-ye didn’t take it as a joke.
“You stepped in to protect me. I couldn’t exactly sell you out.”
“I see. That’s pretty admirable.”
I said it with complete sincerity. But for some reason, she seemed to take it as teasing.
“Don’t mock me.”
“I meant it.”
“When you already did all the cool things yourself.”
Only after the words left her mouth did Gwan Seo-ye seem to realize what she’d said, because her face flushed red. That line had taken even me by surprise, enough that I couldn’t immediately answer with one of my usual jokes.
“Ah, forget it. Forget it. Let’s just drink. With the atmosphere this nice and only the two of us here, it’s more comfortable anyway.”
Speaking in an exaggeratedly loud voice, Gwan Seo-ye went straight into the cabin. I followed her in at once.
“You’re not getting off?”
“Why would I get off? We paid to ride this thing.”
“The Hebei Peng Clan will be here soon.”
“I know. We were going to meet them eventually anyway. Better sooner than later.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to ask Lord Wang to mediate a little?”
“No. I don’t want to trouble him over something like this. If I can’t even handle a small conflict like this on my own, then how am I supposed to inherit the merchant company?”
Without thinking, I found myself nodding. Because that too was true.
Gwan Seo-ye opened the cabinet and looked carefully over the bottles of liquor inside. Then she rose onto her toes and pulled down the bottle from the very top shelf.
“Let’s drink this. It obviously looks like excellent liquor.”
“You do have an eye for quality.”
“I’m a merchant.”
Without meeting my eyes, Gwan Seo-ye hurried out again. Judging by the redness still lingering on her face, she seemed to be embarrassed about what she’d said earlier.
When I came back out of the cabin, the same boatman and several others were there as well. With Peng Jin-yeong and the others having fled in such a panic, they’d evidently come up to see what had happened.
The boatman’s expression was grim. Naturally. The deck had been damaged by Peng Jin-yeong’s shock step, blood was splattered around, and teeth were rolling about. There was no way any of that looked good.
“What happened here?”
Even so, he asked us in a calm tone.
I gave him the simple version. There’d been an altercation, we’d fought, and the other side had lost and fled.
“Ah, and you can bill the Hebei Peng Clan for the damage to the deck. He’s the one who broke it.”
I added that, but the boatman’s face had already gone so pale that he could barely process what I was saying. What merchant wouldn’t feel hopeless after hearing that someone from the Hebei Peng Clan had just been carried off from his own boat as a bloody ruin?
It was obvious that hulking, vicious-looking men from the Hebei Peng Clan would soon come crashing in.
“Please don’t worry. No harm will come to you because of this. I’m Gwan Seo-ye of the Yunchang Merchant Company.”
At that, Gwan Seo-ye reassured the boatman. Once he learned who she was, his expression eased a little.
Still, not all of the worry left his face. No matter how important the Yunchang Merchant Company was, it was still true that its power was nowhere near the might of the Hebei Peng Clan.
“Just have this cleaned up and then go below.”
“…Yes, understood. I sincerely hope things are resolved well.”
After begging us one more time, the boatman went back down. The departure time had already been set, so before long the boat began moving out over the lake.
By the time I’d finished pounding Peng Jin-yeong into the deck, the sun had already begun to set. The wineshop owners lined up around the lakeshore were starting to come out one by one and hang lanterns.
The lakeshore darkened quickly. That only made the lights reflecting off the water all the more beautiful. They looked like stars that should have belonged to the deep night but had descended early.
“Have a drink.”
Still looking out over the view with me, Gwan Seo-ye filled a cup so full that it nearly overflowed and shoved it into my hand.
“You pour it like this is the last drink before we die.”
I laughed and accepted the cup. When Gwan Seo-ye reached to pour her own, I took the bottle from her and filled her cup instead.
“You worked hard.”
“I think what’s coming next is going to be a lot harder.”
“That too is true.”
Gwan Seo-ye frowned and held her cup out in front of her. It seemed to mean shut up and drink. Our cups clinked together, and then we drank.
“Khh.”
Apparently the liquor was rather strong, because Gwan Seo-ye scrunched up her face.
The boat gliding slowly over the lake, the ripples spreading softly out behind it, and the lights along the shore flickering like floating lanterns. In the middle of all that, the sight of Gwan Seo-ye grimacing looked brighter than anything else. I shook my head. It was only a single cup of liquor, and already I felt crazy. Or perhaps I’d simply become too intoxicated by the atmosphere of Shichahai itself.
“This is nice.”
“Yeah. It’d be even better if the Hebei Peng Clan didn’t show up.”
“Don’t talk about the Hebei Peng Clan. It ruins the taste of the liquor.”
Gwan Seo-ye grumbled. It was a perfectly sensible thing to say. People who couldn’t enjoy something properly when they had the chance usually couldn’t concentrate properly even when it came time to work either.
“Thanks.”
As she refilled my cup, Gwan Seo-ye said that.
“For what?”
“You protected me as my escort, didn’t you? To be honest, I thought you only carried a sword around to look cool. But I guess that wasn’t the case.”
“Would I have taken the escort assignment if that were true?”
“Even so, what kind of merchant beats someone from the Hebei Peng Clan? It’s honestly ridiculous.”
With a little laugh, Gwan Seo-ye turned her head and looked out over the lake. Her large eyes and the sharply defined line of her nose entered my vision.
“But you really are strong. You must’ve trained hard since you were little.”
“Not exactly.”
Without thinking, I started talking about my past. Once I brought up my own past, Gwan Seo-ye began talking as well about what she had been like around that age. Naturally, it was all something I already knew well.
As we talked, whenever it seemed the other’s lips were going dry, we’d exchange a glance and take another drink. Before we knew it, we’d become close enough to communicate entire opinions with nothing more than a look. The relationship was progressing remarkably quickly. Then again, there was a reason we had been such close friends in the previous life.
A strange feeling overtook me. Gwan Seo-ye was speaking of the same past she had always spoken of, but I was speaking of a past that had diverged entirely from my previous life ever since I entered the Wudang Sect.
Naturally, I had shared many stories about the past with the Gwan Seo-ye of my previous life as well. I knew her past, and she knew mine. It felt as though those memories were being covered over one by one by this new conversation, written over into something else.
“I feel kind of at ease talking with you.”
“Of course you do.”
Because I’d already spoken with you countless times. I swallowed that bitter truth without saying it aloud.
“What’s with that irritating tone?”
Gwan Seo-ye said that with a laugh. This was how we used to fool around. Wasn’t it always like this among friends? Especially between those of the same age, the closer they were, the harsher and more careless they often became with each other.
Seeing Gwan Seo-ye laugh again after so long was a sweet thing. The memories being buried were bitter, and the new ones being written over them were sweet. Like the liquor I was drinking right now, the whole situation was bittersweet.
But that sweetness didn’t last long. From far away, terrifying presences were rapidly approaching. Gwan Seo-ye seemed to feel something in the sudden fierce wind as well, because her expression hardened.
Before long, two people emerged from the darkness. Absurdly enough, they were carrying a sedan chair before and behind them.
Without hesitation, they threw themselves into the lake while still carrying the chair. At first I thought they must be insane, but I had no choice but to revise that judgment almost immediately.
Using treading on duckweed and crossing water, they stepped over the surface and came charging toward us at terrifying speed. And throughout it all, the sedan chair they carried between them didn’t sway even once.
The part of my martial arts I had the most confidence in was my lightness skill, but I still hadn’t reached the realm of treading on duckweed and crossing water. That meant they were both far stronger than I was.
When they reached the boat, the two men leaped straight over the side, which stood a full ten feet high, and landed on the deck where we were. Up close, details I hadn’t been able to make out in the darkness or at that speed became clear.
Both were older middle-aged men. One wore black, the other white.
“Young Lady, you may come out.”
One of the two men set the sedan chair down respectfully and spoke.
Soon the curtain lifted, and a beautiful woman stepped out with her hair swept up and fastened with a hairpin.
The woman was astonishingly beautiful, beautiful enough that even compared to Gwan Seo-ye, who was called the greatest beauty in Shanxi, she did not fall short. If not for the enormous saber strapped across her back, a blade nearly as big as her own body, she might have seemed delicate.
“You worked hard, Elder Black, Elder White.”
The woman praised them in an elegant voice. The two older men lowered their heads deeply with moved expressions. That brief exchange alone made it plain how loyal the two elders were to her.
“Which one of you was it? The one who taught my cousin a lesson.”
The woman asked as she looked toward us.
“I don’t know which cousin of yours you’re talking about.”
“Ah. My introductions are late. I am Peng Chae-hyang of the Peng Clan.”
Gwan Seo-ye’s eyes widened. That was only natural. Peng Chae-hyang of the Peng Clan was one of the most famous rising younger-generation figures in the jianghu. Even as a merchant, one couldn’t help but know the name.
I had more or less guessed it already. I had never met Peng Chae-hyang before, but from the sobriquet Moon-Shrouding Saber that circulated in the world, I had been able to guess. Moon-Shrouding was an expression used for a beautiful woman. So there could only be one person fitting that appearance while carrying such a giant saber.
What a strange family. The Hebei Peng Clan usually looked like a pack of burly mountain bandits, and yet from such a clan had come a beauty like this. I very nearly wanted to ask whether she had been picked up from somewhere.
“It was me.”
I stepped forward before Gwan Seo-ye could say anything else.
“No. He’s only our Yunchang Merchant Company’s esco…”
“Be quiet. I’m not here as your escort right now. I didn’t beat that bastard because I was your escort.”
“Then what was it?”
“I beat him because we’re friends.”
At my words, Gwan Seo-ye lost hers. If I said that was the reason, what exactly could she do about it?
“A fine friendship, then.”
Peng Chae-hyang nodded. Of course, there wasn’t the slightest trace of sincerity in it.
“So then, Lady Peng, have you come to hold us responsible?”
I brought us back to the point. Unexpectedly, Peng Chae-hyang shook her head.
“I’ve heard roughly what happened. If my cousin’s companions are speaking of it in that tone, then I don’t even need to see it to know what really happened.”
Peng Chae-hyang possessed enough judgment not to take her cousin’s side’s version at face value. To my surprise, she then bowed to us.
“I’m sorry about my cousin. He’s such a wastrel that he loses all restraint whenever he sees a beautiful woman. Someone really ought to cut it off.”
At that unexpected apology, Gwan Seo-ye could only open and close her mouth, not knowing how to answer. I hadn’t expected this either. Who would’ve thought that someone from the Peng Clan, rather than blindly taking Peng Jin-yeong’s side, would apologize to us?
“It would be nice if I could just apologize and leave it at that.”
Peng Chae-hyang smiled. Something in that smile felt dangerous, so I stepped in front of Gwan Seo-ye.
“But hearing you say that the Hebei Peng Clan was nothing, even under these circumstances, is something I can’t just let pass.” Peng Chae-hyang’s eyes burned. She hadn’t come to avenge Peng Jin-yeong. She had come to answer the insult I had made against the Hebei Peng Clan itself.