Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin

Chapter 112: Tang Yeo-hye’s Friend

Ip-ha (Beginning of Summer).

The start of summer, and the warm sunlight poured down.

“Then, I’ll be going, Master.”

It had been a training that allowed me to gather a small enlightenment, and obtain a seed toward transcending Peak.

Ilhong also seemed to have made great progress, her aura becoming even deeper than before.

At the main gate of Eunseong Trading Company, where cargo was busily going in and out, I rubbed the bruised swelling around my eye like a panda and bid farewell to Hwang Geolgae.

“Come by often, brat. Do you think this old man wants to be waiting on you?”

He sounded exactly like a grandfather reluctantly sending off a grandchild who had come down for the holidays.

“But, I get beaten up every time I come.”

I said while rubbing the bump still forming on my crown.

Even if it was training, who would feel like coming back when they were pummeled this badly?

“You fool, you should dodge with your skills.”

How could someone like me, still stuck at Peak, possibly dodge the fist strikes of a Blazing Flame master?

Especially when the very fist art being used was taught to me by the man himself.

To challenge me like this, knowing full well I couldn’t possibly avoid it…

“Revenge.”

For the first time in a while, my heart aligned perfectly with the Heaven-Slaying Star.

“This unworthy disciple will one day leap past Blazing Flame right before your eyes.”

A man must always have a goal.

Seeing my determined gaze, swearing to become stronger, Hwang Geolgae only smirked.

“Hehe, so you really want to beat this old man that badly?”

Even a small, selfish goal was enough as fuel to move a man forward.

“Damn right.”

And me? Without honesty, I was basically a corpse.

At my blunt response, Hwang Geolgae’s smile grew satisfied.

As expected, this guy wasn’t normal either.

“Hu-hu, then you’d better stack up even more good karma.”

“Good karma? I thought I needed enlightenment now?”

Wasn’t that why I had come to him in the first place—to polish my basics?

Though, it didn’t seem to have much effect in reaching Transcendence.

“That, I already shoved into your body.”

“…What?”

Shoved into my body already? What the hell did that mean?

“Do good deeds, accumulate virtue. If you walk the path of a chivalrous hero, someday my teachings will resound in your chest.”

He said it as if he had already shown me all there was to show, and that my body remembered everything of the Heaven-Slaying Star—so I should just wait.

He spoke like he had arranged something beforehand. I tilted my head.

“Don’t lie. You just got beaten, didn’t you?”

It was Divine Wind Daoist’s chronic illness. Sometimes, he’d spout these airy, incomprehensible lines.

“Haha, well, there’s plenty of that too.”

See? Look at him bouncing like a fresh fish, muttering how it was fun to beat me up.

“Master… please wait for your disciple’s growth.”

I grit my teeth as I said it.

Where else in the world would you find a master-disciple relationship like this?

Even out of sheer spite, I swore to surpass this man’s realm.

On the road of parting after a long-awaited meeting, I burned with fiery determination.

A few months’ outing.

After completing our task, we returned to the Troubleshooter Office.

My own place, where expensive land tax, the tribute to the Imperial Capital, and still-massive loans all piled up.

As I sat and rubbed my backside on the empty office chair for several days, the reality of our situation sank in once again.

“Ilhong, what do we do. We’ve got no clients.”

Even though, in our last request, we had shown the feat of felling nearly 2.9 experts of the Royal Guards—discounting that kill-stealer—it turned out there were still no clients.

“Well, of course. That was never a case that could spread by word-of-mouth.”

Ilhong muttered casually as she stirred her teacup.

Considering that it had been a case of adultery mixed with misunderstanding, there was no way the clients would go around bragging about it.

And the Eastern Depot and the Royal Guards were secret police by nature—experts at keeping their mouths shut.

There was no way for my dazzling exploits in the back alleys to be spread across the Central Plains and Beijing.

Thus, the office remained in the exact same state as before the last request.

“Sigh… the only gains were the payment and that spiritual elixir.”

Well, the spiritual elixir was a huge deal, though.

But from the looks of it, that Cheon Sugong fellow had given it as an investment, so one day, I might have to repay it.

Whiiing—

Then, the silence was broken by the annoying buzz of flies circling the jars.

“Ilhong! Catch those!”

I jumped up and shouted, making Ilhong pull a weird face.

“You’re not planning on eating those, are you?”

“What nonsense!”

Just because I’d shown a few bug-eating performances out of hunger, now she thought I’d eat anything.

“A newly opened office can’t have flies buzzing around! Catch them!”

“What kind of superstition is that…”

“Hey!”

At my urging, she grumbled but still struck the flies one by one with her Paok Fist, now at Three Stars level.

Jingling, jingling.

And just as the last one was knocked down, whether by coincidence or fate, the tiny bell at the entrance rang, announcing a customer.

“Oh, welcome… huh? Kid, you again?”

A round, innocent face.

It was that kid again—the one who had requested a ‘scary uncle service’ because he was being bullied at the academy.

“You, just leave.”

I waved my hand immediately, thinking there was no money in this.

No matter how much good karma I wanted to build, how could I when I had to pay imperial taxes and massive debts?

“Boss, wait a moment.”

But then Ilhong, the brain of our office, stopped me.

“That kid’s surname seemed suspicious last time, so I did a little digging.”

She whispered information in my ear that couldn’t be taken lightly.

“A child of the Jang Clan…?”

“Yes. Besides, if he’s attending an academy here in the Imperial Capital, the family must be wealthy.”

Now that she said it, it made sense. This was like the Gangnam district back on modern Earth.

If you could send your child to a school in such an expensive area, your family obviously had considerable wealth.

“Oh my, dear customer. What can we do for you today?”

I quickly rubbed my hands together and approached the little client.

Thankfully, he was still a child. Without caring about our obvious greed, he poured out his worries.

“Hyung, the academy kids started bullying me again.”

I made a puzzled face at the kid’s words.

Even after a martial artist had stepped in and scared them that much, the bullying had started again already? Normally, that wasn’t so easy.

Where the hell had they gotten that kind of confidence?

“They brought their own scary uncle. Rumor has it… he’s a Troubleshooter.”

“What kind of bastards with no honor…”

If one side hired someone, the other side should’ve backed off to avoid unnecessary clashes.

But they actually escalated things by hiring another Troubleshooter just to earn a few coins?

They were complete degenerates, breaking the unspoken rules of the Troubleshooter world.

“Kid, don’t worry. Bullying? Scary uncles? This hyung will take care of all of it.”

I rose in anger, but the kid muttered with a doubtful expression.

“But they said their uncle is really scary… can you handle it?”

Apparently, he was some so-called expert who had reached Second Rate.

And they were even calling him a master at that level?

“Watch this.”

This time, I pulled out ten iron coins and crushed them in my hands all at once, crack.

As the flattened coins clattered to the ground, the boy’s eyes went wide.

“How about that?”

“That trick is still scary, I’ll give you that…”

Seeing him nodding, it seemed to have worked.

“Let’s go. This uncle will follow you.”

And so, the kid, Ilhong, and I marched out of the office with confident steps.

“Waaah!”

“I won’t bully anymore!”

“Sniff, sob…”

A scene of chaos—one scary-looking grown man, beaten down like a thug and sprawled on the ground, while the surrounding kids bawled their eyes out.

“Boss, you beat him up way too hard.”

The two scary uncles had clashed, and the uncle on the other side—who had bullied our client—was pummeled unconscious.

“But what could I do? He told me, whether I was Dog-Beating Dragon or Dick-Dragon, to piss off and stop acting tough.”

I had tried to start with words at first, since it was just a matter of business turf overlapping.

But that Evil Sect bastard ran his filthy mouth without even knowing who I was.

“You should never mock someone’s alias to their face…”

What was a martial artist? In this era where savagery and romance coexisted, they were men who could fight a hundred to one.

And with that power came pride as filthy and stubborn as iron. If you scratched it openly, you had better be ready for the consequences.

Especially me—since I’d been teased endlessly about my alias, my berserk button got pressed instantly.

“Sniff.”

“Hey, you’re the client. Why are you crying?”

Beside me, the little Jang Clan kid sniffled and rubbed his nose.

“Hyung, you were scary just now.”

How would such a weak-hearted kid survive in this brutal world?

Anyway, it seemed the request had been completed successfully. That was what mattered.

“But, Troubleshooter hyung…”

“Hm? What is it?”

“They’re not going to hire an even scarier Troubleshooter after this, are they?”

The Jang Clan kid pointed at the fleeing academy bullies, still sobbing, and asked nervously.

“Oh, no way… And even if they do, just call me again.”

Our office had been dead quiet with no clients anyway.

If they wanted to call another scary uncle, I’d only be grateful.

“How far can you handle, then?”

“As far as the money pays.”

That so-called Second Rate martial artist? My pretty-boy Ilhong could have cut him down easily.

I already had a good grasp of the Troubleshooter standards in this city. No matter who they called, I was confident.

“Thanks, hyung. They probably won’t bully me for a while now.”

The kid seemed reassured at my bold declaration.

He told me he’d suffered a lot—being beaten and openly bullied constantly.

At that age, kids never knew when to stop. That was why they only got more cruel.

“Oh, here’s the payment I promised.”

He said he had scraped together all his allowance for it.

Better to hand it over now, he said, before it all got extorted by those bullies anyway.

“Ohh.”

I opened it to find a pile of twenty shining silver coins.

Damn, what kind of kid got an allowance of twenty silver coins?

This must’ve been the Jang Clan wealth Ilhong had talked about.

“If anything happens, just call me again.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about food for a while, Boss.”

Ilhong clung to my arm, smiling happily.

“Let’s have Dongpo Pork tonight, for the first time in a while.”

And so, after thrashing one scumbag with no sense of partnership, we returned to the office in high spirits.

Thud.

But at the doorway, I bumped into a massive silhouette.

I looked up to see a martial artist built like a mountain. He was at least over six cheok tall, his head nearly brushing the doorframe.

His body blotted out the sunlight, and at his side hung a long, broad blade.

“Ilhong, why can’t I see the sun anymore?”

“Step back a few paces…”

Since he’d been waiting at our office door, it seemed he had business with us.

The mountain-like martial artist spoke to me.

“So, you are the Dog-Beating Dragon?”

But when the voice rang out—it was a woman’s.

“Yes, that’s me… Do you know me?”

And for some reason, she seemed to know me quite well.

“Ah, I’ve heard much about you. From a friend.”

She claimed to have come by a friend’s introduction.

I asked her identity.

“Nice to meet you, young master. I am Peng Hwayeop of the Hebei Peng Clan. I came here by introduction of my friend, Tang Yeo-hye.”

“….”

I was speechless for a moment.

Of all things—short little Tang Yeo-hye and this tall woman were friends?

Whenever they talked, one would have to crane her head to the sky while the other stared down at the ground.

What a bizarre pairing, highlighting each other’s heights.

As the image popped into my mind, I muttered blankly.

“Wow… so that noona actually had a friend.”

No wonder she always snapped whenever I teased her about not having any.