22

The northern side of the Namgung Clan.

Beneath the towering Northern Palace, a massive gate could be seen.

It was the North Gate leading into the northern section of the Namgung Clan estate.

The gatekeeper guarding the North Gate surveyed the surroundings with a stern expression.

Today was the day of the grand banquet.

All honored guests would enter through the South Gate, so those coming in through the North Gate were mostly people handling the backstage preparations for the banquet.

Like the meat delivery wagon that had just stopped in front of the gatekeeper’s eyes.

“Stop.”

The gatekeeper halted the wagon.

It was clearly a wagon belonging to the Namgung Clan, and under normal circumstances, he would have let it pass without question—but since the face of Gauhyeon, the person in charge, was nowhere to be seen atop the wagon, he stopped it first.

A boy got down from the wagon.

Chui. His face was caked with dirt and ash.

The gatekeeper frowned as he looked at Chui.

“Who are you? Where is Squad Leader Gauhyeon?”

“He said something came up and that he needed to stop by somewhere else for a moment. He said the meat delivery would be delayed, so I should go ahead in his place…”

“Really? Why? That picky man wouldn’t do something like that out of the blue.”

The gatekeeper’s gaze narrowed like a snake’s as it swept over Chui and the meat wagon.

He went to the back of the wagon, to the cargo compartment, and opened the door.

Creeeak—

A chill swept out, and in the darkness, slabs of meat hung in rows.

The gatekeeper gave the cargo compartment a quick look.

“…”

A bloodstain caught his eye.

It was very small, splattered far back on the rear door of the cargo compartment.

But the gatekeeper let it pass without much thought.

After all, this was a wagon that had come straight from a slaughterhouse with meat loaded onto it—wasn’t it natural for a bit of blood to get on the door?

Still, Gauhyeon’s absence nagged at him.

The gatekeeper asked Chui,

“You’re saying something happened to Squad Leader Gauhyeon?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know the details. He just seemed to be in quite a hurry.”

“Then why did he send a kid like you as a replacement? There must’ve been adults at the slaughterhouse.”

“Well… something unpleasant happened.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The laborers were a bit slow carrying the meat. So my lord said he’d straighten out their bad habits and went after everyone’s legs…”

Chui did not lie.

But with just a few truths spoken, the gatekeeper filled in the rest of the situation on his own.

“Damn it, that guy must’ve thrown another fit over there. Last time, he chopped off a butcher’s finger for pretending not to hear his orders, and now it’s legs? You’ve got to give him credit—his hatred of commoners is unmatched.”

Having heard Chui’s words, the gatekeeper waved his hand as if to say enough.

“Alright. Come here.”

Normally, he would have been a bit more suspicious of Chui’s story, but today was the day of the grand banquet, and he was far too busy to spare the attention.

Right behind this meat delivery wagon, all sorts of other wagons were lined up—vegetable deliveries, firewood deliveries, silk deliveries, and more.

The gatekeeper called Chui over and wrote his name in the entry log.

“You’re a butcher, right? Got a name?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your name—… no, never mind. What’s the point with a butcher.”

The gatekeeper roughly wrote the two characters for “butcher” into the log.

Then he lifted his head and looked at Chui.

“Is it because you’re a butcher…? You seem to smell rather strongly of blood.”

“I was just inside the meat compartment until a moment ago.”

“Is that so? Hm.”

The gatekeeper nodded without further comment.

Soon, Chui drove the wagon through the North Gate.

At the very moment Chui crossed the threshold—

“Hey, butcher. Wait a moment.”

The gatekeeper called out to him again.

As Chui turned his head, the gatekeeper quickly pulled his hand from inside his robes.

Flap—

A towel dropped into Chui’s hand.

The gatekeeper said,

“Your face is filthy. No matter how much of a menial you are, I can’t let you wander around inside the Namgung Clan with a face that dirty. Go wash up.”

At that, Chui slowly nodded.

…Fwoosh!

Fire flared up in the hearth.

Jangchil and Wangpal, who had delivered firewood from outside, were sweating profusely as they carried stacks of split logs to the hearth.

“As expected of the Namgung Clan’s grand banquet. They use up in a single day the firewood we’d have to sell all year.”

“And thanks to that, we’ve made a tidy profit. Heh heh heh—”

Just then, Jangchil and Wangpal’s eyes were drawn to one spot.

Across from the hearth, a woman was walking by.

She was a maid working for the Namgung Clan.

Jangchil and Wangpal admired her as they watched.

“Coming to the Namgung Clan, even the maids are incredibly beautiful.”

“Right? All of them are tall and pretty. I heard the Namgung Clan even considers looks when selecting servants—men and women alike.”

“We’d be rejected on the spot.”

“You might pass, since you’re tall.”

“Come on, they look at faces too.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Jangchil and Wangpal let out small sighs.

“Do you think we’ll ever meet women like that in our lives?”

“Probably not. I hear the Namgung Clan’s maids are extremely prickly toward outside laborers. They don’t talk to them or even look at them.”

“Can you blame them? They’re all that beautiful…”

It was exactly as said.

The servants working for the Namgung Clan took great pride in their workplace, and in their own looks that allowed them to work in such a place.

Perhaps because of that, the Namgung Clan’s servants were not particularly friendly toward outside workers who came in from time to time.

They were prickly and aloof, and rarely tried to engage in conversation.

This was true whether they were men or women.

That was why Jangchil and Wangpal could only steal glances at the maids from afar like this.

…And then, something strange happened.

All at once, the Namgung Clan’s maids began moving in small groups, gathering together and heading toward the kitchen.

“Hey, did you hear? In the kitchen…”

“Oh, you mean the worker who came in from outside?”

“I just went to take a quick look, and he’s absolutely unbelievable.”

“That good?”

“Yes! You know I don’t usually say things like this!”

“I need to go see for myself, then.”

The Namgung Clan’s maids hurried toward the kitchen.

Their posture was elegant, their gazes aloof, but their steps quickened despite themselves, brimming with barely concealed anticipation.

Each of them carried towels, water, mooncakes, or sweet pastries wrapped in the folds of their skirts.

Curious, Jangchil and Wangpal craned their necks and looked toward the kitchen.

There, they saw a place crowded with maids.

It was where the kitchen connected to the slaughterhouse.

A single laborer repeatedly came carrying meat and setting it down.

The maids clustered around him, chattering nonstop.

“Hey, are you working all by yourself?”

“Of course I am! What, should I work in a group, you crazy woman?”

“I wasn’t asking you, you crazy woman!”

“How old are you? You look young.”

“Here, forget that—try eating this. It’s a mooncake. I’ve got sweet pastries too.”

“You must be tired, right? Take it easy. Drink some water here.”

“Oh my, look at all that sweat. Want to use this towel? No, I’ll wipe it for you!”

Seeing the usually aloof Namgung Clan maids surrounding a single outside laborer, offering him water, towels, and all kinds of snacks, Jangchil and Wangpal gaped.

For what reason were the proud and prickly maids of the Namgung Clan doting on an outsider like that?

Soon, Jangchil and Wangpal nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, I get it. Makes sense.”

“Tsk—damn filthy world.”

The laborer surrounded by maids carried heavy slabs of meat, revealing a well-trained upper body that didn’t match his youthful appearance.

It was Chui.

“…”

Chui frowned as he set the meat down.

With his shirt off, wiping the sweat from his brow with the hand holding a boning knife, gasps escaped from among the maids ahead.

“His face looks like it was carved from jade.”

“Please look this way!”

“Which slaughterhouse are you from?”

“Oh my, look at the sweat running between those muscles.”

“I’ll wipe it for you! I washed my skirt hem this morning—it’s clean!”

The number of eyes on him continued to grow.

Chui said with a scowl,

“You’re in the way.”

“Kyaa! He says we’re in the way! So cool!”

For some reason, the maids’ reactions only grew hotter.

Chui pressed a hand to his forehead, realizing his mistake.

Before his regression, Chui had endured countless storms and hellish battlefields.

In the process, he had suffered countless scars—slashes, gashes, burns—across his entire body, including his face, and because of that, he had once been treated as a “monster” alongside Ho Yeyang.

But after regressing, Chui had regained the appearance of his youth, a time he barely even remembered.

He was not the only one whose appearance had changed after returning to the past—Ho Yeyang’s had as well.

“…What a nuisance.”

Avoiding the maids’ gazes, Chui headed toward the wagon’s cargo compartment.

There, he finally saw the last piece of meat to be unloaded.

It was the corpse of a massive wolf.

The sacrifice meant to adorn this grand banquet of the Namgung Clan.

From what he’d heard, they planned to collect the wolf’s blood in a bronze platter and conduct some sort of sacred ritual.

At that moment, murmurs drifted in from beside Chui.

It was idle chatter from Jangchil and Wangpal, who had come to look at the wolf.

“I hear the wolf the Northern Palace Garden caught this time is enormous. Thought we’d take a look.”

“That’s the sacrifice to be used for the blood oath, right?”

“What was the blood oath again? Sounds familiar.”

“You know, the thing where they gather all the invited guests together. Something about solidifying the alliance, wasn’t it?”

“Ah, right. They did it on a grand scale last year too. I wonder who’ll be draining the sacrifice’s blood this time.”

“Since you have to hold the sacred sword, it’ll probably be someone of high status in the Namgung Clan. I heard the clan head did it personally last year.”

“Then it’ll be her this time. Miss Sword Blossom.”

“Ah, you mean Miss Namgung Yul? I heard she came back from the Ascension Academy. It’s break time, apparently.”

Jangchil and Wangpal chatted back and forth as they approached the wagon.

Then—

“Huh?”

They looked into the wagon’s cargo compartment with puzzled expressions.

Inside lay a single massive wolf.

But the person who was supposed to carry it—Chui—was nowhere to be seen.

Jangchil and Wangpal tilted their heads.

“That’s strange. Wasn’t there someone here just a moment ago?”

“Right. I’m sure there was a laborer carrying meat.”

Just then, a sharp voice rang out from behind them.

One of the Namgung Clan’s martial artists was pointing at Jangchil and Wangpal.

“Hey! What are you doing? Why aren’t you moving the sacrifice already?!”

“Pardon? We—we’re not workers from the slaughterhouse…”

“What does that matter! Can’t you see how busy everyone is? Hurry and put that on the altar!”

Hearing that, Jangchil and Wangpal looked aggrieved, but there was nothing they could do.

After all, this client had brought them an entire year’s worth of sales in a single day—how could they refuse?

In the end, Jangchil and Wangpal had to carry the wolf’s corpse to the altar.

All four of the wolf’s legs were tied to black poles, so all they had to do was lift the poles and carry it—but the problem was its weight.

“Ugh, why is this thing so heavy?”

“Must be because it’s such a big wolf. It’s insanely heavy.”

“It feels heavier than it looks. Could it have been pregnant? Its belly looks a bit swollen.”

“Even these black poles weigh a ton… I think we’ll need more hands.”

In the end, Jangchil and Wangpal called over the other workers who’d come with them, and together they moved the wolf.

It took six full-grown men straining together just to haul the wolf up to the top of the high altar.

Soon, all the menial workers withdrew before the grand banquet began.

…Now, it was finally time for the true protagonists to step onto the stage.

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