Jeok Wigang stared at Ye Yahyeon and Baek Ryeongso in disbelief.
“There’s an organization devoted to serving you?”
“Yes. I’m telling you, there is.”
“They even went around lying that they were in contact with us.”
“Really? That’s interesting. Where are they?”
“There were some of them there, but apparently they were such rotten bastards that Jin Muryang killed them all.”
“I’m pretty sure I told him not to kill anyone.”
“They were truly rotten bastards.... You know Muryang understands what you want, Elder Brother.”
At Ye Yahyeon’s cautious explanation, Jeok Wigang nodded.
“Right. He must’ve had a reason.”
“What should we do? We came back to ask what you thought.”
“Let’s go. Sounds interesting.”
“Then we’ll take you there now.”
“Ah, before that, let’s finish things here first.”
“Things here?”
“The county office. I’ll feel better once that’s settled.”
Baek Ryeongso smiled.
“I can take care of that myself.”
“No. It’s my business too.”
“What?”
Baek Ryeongso stared at him, wondering what he meant, and Ye Yahyeon explained.
“Elder Brother is a government official.”
“Huh?”
“He took the imperial examination. Passed as the top scorer.”
“Good lord....”
As Baek Ryeongso gaped, Ye Yahyeon said,
“Now do you understand how we felt when you told us you wanted to make clothes?”
“Ah. So this is what it felt like?”
He gave a quiet laugh.
“That’s astonishing. Elder Brother, a government official.... Is your rank higher than a county magistrate’s?”
“Of course.”
“The county magistrate has a prefect above him. The magistrate here is the prefect’s son.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You outrank the prefect too? Well, I suppose if Elder Brother accepted an official position, it was never going to be an ordinary one.”
“You know me well.”
The grin on Jeok Wigang’s face only made Baek Ryeongso more curious.
Just what kind of office did he hold to be so confident?
*****
Baek Ryeongso arrived at the county office.
The government soldiers guarding the entrance immediately approached when they saw him.
They had already heard the rumors that he was a martial artist—and an absurdly powerful one at that—so every one of them looked tense.
“W-what brings you here?”
“I’ve come to see the county magistrate.”
“Are you here to take revenge on His Excellency?”
The soldier was so frightened he could barely get the words out. Baek Ryeongso shook his head.
“No. There seems to have been a misunderstanding. I came to clear it up.”
The soldiers exchanged glances.
His behavior was so different from what the rumors had led them to expect that they seemed unsure whether they could believe him.
“If I’d come for revenge, would I be standing here speaking so politely? I’d have blown the place apart and walked straight in.”
That apparently made sense to the soldiers, because they nodded.
“Wait here. I’ll inform His Excellency.”
A short while later, the soldier returned and nodded.
“Come in. I’ll show you the way.”
He led them to a garden with a pavilion in its center.
The county magistrate sat inside, looking distinctly displeased.
When he saw Baek Ryeongso, he sighed.
“Come. Sit.”
His tone said plainly that he had known this moment would come.
“You seem to have been expecting me.”
“I heard what happened. Apparently you beat down every last one of the vicious-looking bastards causing trouble in front of your shop.”
“That’s right. They confessed to everything.”
“I’m sorry. When it comes to my son, I’m not capable of judging matters impartially. I suppose an apology alone won’t settle this?”
Baek Ryeongso smiled.
He had expected the man to deny everything, but the magistrate admitted it without hesitation.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Did you think I’d claim I had nothing to do with it?”
“To be honest, yes. I was wondering what I would do if you denied it. But I also heard that when you hired them, you specifically told them not to injure me too badly. Why?”
“You humiliated my son, so I wanted them to teach you a lesson. I never intended for you to come to serious harm. My son may be... somewhat lacking, but he isn’t a bad person. You could simply have sold him some clothes. Why did you refuse?”
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do that.”
“Why? Because my son can’t dress himself properly?”
“Exactly. The clothes I make are precious children to me. I can’t bear to see them worn like that.”
His answer was absolute.
“Then make him clothes that won’t look like that when he wears them! Isn’t that what a true craftsman does? What happened to taking on a challenge? Do you have no spirit at all?”
There was such genuine anguish in the magistrate’s voice that Baek Ryeongso almost felt sorry for him.
The magistrate sighed, lowered his head, and spoke in a drained voice.
“Do you... have children?”
Baek Ryeongso shook his head.
“Then you wouldn’t understand how I feel....”
The magistrate looked at him sorrowfully.
“He was a bright child when he was young. Imagine how you would feel if a child like that turned into a fool overnight. The fact that I haven’t gone mad myself is a miracle. A miracle.”
Just what sort of illness could have left the boy dressing the way he did?
In truth, the magistrate’s son was quite handsome.
If he simply stood still without doing anything, he didn’t merely look normal—he was handsome enough to turn women’s heads.
That only made it more painful for his father.
A boy blessed with a face like that went around behaving like a complete fool. How could it not drive his father insane?
The magistrate had tried everything to make him dress properly.
Nothing worked.
No matter how neatly they dressed him, within fifteen minutes he would have rearranged his clothes however he pleased.
Even that might have been tolerable if he had simply stayed home.
Instead, he went out into the marketplace and caused every kind of scene imaginable.
People only put up with it because they knew he was the county magistrate’s son and knew there was something wrong with him.
The magistrate was painfully aware of that, which was why he did his best to treat the people of the county well whenever possible.
As a result, his reputation was not particularly bad.
He simply reacted far too sensitively whenever anything involved his son, and the townspeople had learned to get out of the way whenever the young man appeared.
“Could we meet your son?”
At Jeok Wigang’s question from behind Baek Ryeongso, the magistrate frowned.
“And who are you? If this has nothing to do with you, stay out of it. I have no intention of turning my son into a spectacle.”
“Not as a spectacle. I want to see what condition he’s in. This man here knows some medicine.”
Jeok Wigang pointed at Ye Yahyeon.
Ye Yahyeon flinched.
It was true that he had once taught Jeok Wigang a little about medicine.
That hardly made him some renowned physician.
He had used medicine to kill plenty of people, but he had never used it to save anyone.
The whole reason he had studied medicine in the first place was to learn how to kill people more efficiently, not to heal them.
The magistrate snorted.
“Every famous physician worth mentioning has already examined him. That man doesn’t even look like a proper physician. Forget it.”
“He might know something even without being a proper physician. Aren’t you desperate enough to grasp at any straw you can?”
“You—! Are you mocking me?”
“No. I simply feel sorry for you. I don’t see what you stand to lose by letting us take a look.”
“Hm.”
The magistrate hesitated for a moment, then sighed.
“Very well. I’ll have him brought here.”
If they were offering to examine him, there seemed little reason to refuse.
A short while later, the magistrate returned with his son.
The moment the young man saw Baek Ryeongso, he erupted.
“Hey! You! How dare you come here! Father! That’s him! That’s the bastard who looked down on me earlier and refused to sell me clothes! Punish him!”
“Yes, yes. I understand. Just calm down.”
“AAAAH! AAAAAH! Punish him now! Hurry! Hurry!”
He screamed so loudly it was enough to make everyone’s head spin.
“These people came to help you. Please, just calm down.”
“AAAAH! AAAAAH!”
The magistrate pressed a hand to his forehead.
His son somehow seemed even worse than usual today.
Ye Yahyeon looked at Jeok Wigang.
“You seriously want me to examine his pulse? He looks like he’s in terrible shape.”
“Hmm.”
Jeok Wigang thought for a moment, then stepped in front of the young man and studied him carefully.
“And who the hell are you?! Get away from me! Get lost! I said get lost! AAAAH!”
The son began screaming again.
Jeok Wigang turned to the magistrate.
“I’d like to speak with your son in private for a moment.”
The magistrate stared at him incredulously.
“Does he look capable of having a conversation right now?”
“Not particularly, but I’d still like to try.”
“You know medicine too?”
“Yes.”
The magistrate regarded Jeok Wigang suspiciously.
“AAAAH! AAAH!”
But seeing his son in a worse state than usual finally made him desperate enough to clutch at straws.
“Then just... calm him down somehow.”
“I can do that.”
Jeok Wigang grabbed the son by the hand.
The young man immediately went even more berserk.
“Let go of me! Let go! AAAAAH!”
He threw himself onto the ground and began thrashing wildly.
The magistrate covered his eyes with one hand and sighed, as though he couldn’t bear to watch.
Jeok Wigang simply hoisted the screaming young man into the air and carried him somewhere out of everyone’s sight.
The magistrate trusted that no one would do anything outrageous to his son in the middle of the county office, but he was still uneasy.
He stared anxiously in the direction Jeok Wigang had disappeared.
“AAAAH! AAAAAH!”
The screams continued.
Oddly enough, hearing them reassured him.
“AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAH!”
The screaming grew even worse.
He had never been this bad before.
His condition must have deteriorated again.
“KYAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH!”
He was practically shrieking himself unconscious.
At this rate, he might stop breathing.
“URRRGH! URK!”
Wait.
Was he actually choking?
He really is worse than usual today.
The man who had volunteered to treat him was probably regretting it by now.
No one had forced him into this, yet the magistrate somehow began to feel apologetic.
“GWEEEEEK!”
Hm?
That was a new one.
Then the screaming abruptly stopped.
“What happened? Did he calm down?”
He had sounded moments away from death just seconds ago, yet now everything was quiet.
The magistrate tilted his head.
Then Jeok Wigang emerged.
Seeing him come out alone, the magistrate thought, Of course. I knew it.
But then—
His son walked out behind him with perfect composure.
What...?
The magistrate had never seen him look so normal.
“Son!”
At his father’s call, the young man answered with impeccable courtesy.
“Yes, Father.”
“Huh?”
The magistrate had started toward him, but suddenly flinched to a stop.
The young man didn’t seem like his son.
Had they somehow switched him with someone else?
He looked once.
Then again.
No.
That was definitely his son.
His voice trembled as he asked,
“What did you say? Just now... what did you say?”
“I believe I have caused you a great deal of worry, Father. I am sorry.”
“Good lord....”
The magistrate looked at Jeok Wigang as though he could no longer tell whether what he was seeing was real.
“I-is that really my son?”
“Yes.”
“No, but... why is he suddenly normal?”
The question sounded absurd even to him, but he had to know.
“Ah, we talked. He listened carefully and came to his senses.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Talked?
The boy had been in no state to talk.
“You talked? All I heard was him screaming.”
“I did the persuading. Your son listened while he screamed.”
Jeok Wigang smiled.
Behind him, Baek Ryeongso, Ye Yahyeon, and Jin Muryang could easily guess what had actually happened.
He had probably beaten the boy until he came to his senses.
The unimaginable pain must have snapped his mind clear in an instant.
He had probably fought with everything he had to become sane again—
because his life depended on it.
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