Chapter 70: He Also Does Cosmetic Work [1] The man pointing and hurling foul curses was clearly Makbong.
Standing behind him glaring at the other side was Yeoju.
And the fellows lined up beside them also looked familiar. They were probably the Aeogae gang.
"It looks like a fight is about to break out. Which side is the one you know?"
"Ah. The side with fewer people."
The situation did not look very good.
On this side, there were five including Yeoju. On the other side, there were more than ten at a glance.
No matter how rare a master Makbong might be, winning would be difficult.
"If you're the Aeogae gang, then go back there and play around. Why come all the way here and cause a scene?"
A man who had kept quiet until now stepped forward.
Since he was wearing a paeraeng-i, his status was clearly low.
But his tone and manner were the exact opposite.
It was as if a yangban were scolding commoners.
"You dog bastard, where do you get off lifting your chin and acting so arrogant?"
Naturally, that only helped provoke Makbong's temper.
The other side, as if they had been waiting for that, burst into laughter.
"Bastard? You crazy idiot really don't seem to know who you're dealing with."
"Crazy? Yeah, I'm crazy. You son of a dog, you bastard."
"Boys, teach that bastard some manners."
"Yes, Master Carpenter!"
He had seemed awfully overbearing for a commoner, and sure enough, he really was a master carpenter.
At his command, more than ten rough-looking men charged in.
"Please go inside for a while!"
"Huh? Ah."
Makbong shoved Yeoju into the crowd of onlookers, then began rampaging in every direction.
"Ow!"
"Ugh!"
In an instant, three or four men went down.
The one who rushed in at the very front went down to a headbutt.
The man behind him went down to a kick.
The one beside him went down to a knife-hand strike.
"Wow, Makbong really is strong."
"Should I help too?"
Yeoni asked while holding the basket.
She was still dressed as a medical woman.
"Not in those clothes. Dolseok, why don't you help instead?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you're actually pretty good at taekkyeon too."
"Uh…"
Just as Kanghyeok had said, Dolseok did have some talent for taekkyeon.
He was especially good at copying movements, and that probably came from his exceptional memory.
"Here, give me the basket."
Kanghyeok forcibly snatched away the basket with the pufferfish in it, then shoved Dolseok into the fray.
Dolseok tried to slip away and hide among the onlookers, but Makbong called out in delight.
"Oh! Dolseok! Perfect timing. Beat these bastards up!"
The one who reacted to those words was not Dolseok, but the other side.
They rushed at Dolseok like a pack of dogs, and it was far too much for someone who was only somewhat decent at taekkyeon to handle.
"Oof!"
At least, thanks to his naturally large build, he did not go down easily.
Fortunately, while he held his ground like that, Makbong was taking down the others one by one.
They had started at a numerical disadvantage, but before long the tables had turned, and only the master carpenter and one man beside him were left standing.
"You rat bastard."
The master carpenter stepped backward and shouted,
"Y-you bastard! Do you even know who I am!"
"I do. I know exactly what you are. A rat bastard pretending to put on some kind of performance in this pathetic little yard."
"What did you say! You bastard!"
The way he kept shouting while stepping backward really did make him look like a rat.
He was worlds apart from Wolbaek of the Aeogae gang.
That old man had stood proudly even in front of me.
Considering the difference in status, that had made no sense at all.
He had that much backbone, and that much human charm.
These days, though, it was hard to catch even a glimpse of where he was or what he was doing.
"Don't come any closer, you bastard!"
"You were the one who charged first, and now you're saying this?"
Dolseok, who had finally gotten his wits back, joined in too.
After being thoroughly beaten earlier, he was seething.
At that rate, it looked as though he might beat to death whoever stood in front of him.
"Y-you bastards."
The master carpenter shoved the man who had stayed beside him to the front.
The man was pushed straight forward and ended up standing in front of Makbong.
"You trying to die, bastard?"
"Uh, uh."
Had he not just seen Makbong's terrifying might?
The man could not even think of fighting back and only flinched.
Makbong's hand, as big as a pot lid, came crashing down onto the top of the man's head.
—Thwack.
With a rather dull and dangerous sound, the man collapsed sideways.
Dolseok stomped hard on the fallen man.
"You dog bastard. You liked it when you were beating me earlier, huh?"
Now that he looked closer, this seemed to be the man responsible for a good share of the bruises all over Dolseok's body.
"Don't come any closer!"
The master carpenter kept retreating.
But would Makbong, whose fuse had already blown, have any reason to listen to that?
He simply strode forward.
Then the man on the ground hurriedly shouted,
"You bastard! Do you know who our patron is?"
"Oh."
At the word patron, Kanghyeok and Yi Hang-bok narrowed their eyes. Their reactions were similar, but for entirely different reasons.
In Kanghyeok's case, it was because he had not known gangs could even have patrons.
For Yi Hang-bok, it was pure curiosity.
But it did nothing to narrow Makbong's eyes.
If anything, it only stoked his anger.
Makbong lifted the master carpenter up with both hands and asked,
"Who is it, you bastard?"
The master carpenter kicked his legs wildly but kept his mouth tightly shut.
Instead, he only glared at the subordinate who had spouted needless words.
It was a completely different atmosphere from when he had been retreating earlier.
But the man being stomped on by Dolseok was different.
"Je-Jeong... Lord Jeong Yeo-rip!"
"Who?"
"Jeong Yeo-rip!"
At his subordinate's shout, the master carpenter yelled urgently,
"Shut up! Do you know where we are!"
At the time, Jeong Yeo-rip was quite a famous figure.
Until just a few years earlier, he had been one of the rising stars of the Easterners.
Even though he came from the Westerners, he had gone around criticizing Yi I and Seong Hon, who were practically the forefathers of the Westerners.
But Makbong, being illiterate, had no way of knowing such a name.
How could a mere commoner know what even Kanghyeok did not?
"What the hell is that, bastard! I serve Lord Baek Kanghyeok!"
Instead, while shouting Baek Kanghyeok's name to the whole world, he slammed the master carpenter down.
—Thud.
With a dull sound, the master carpenter went limp.
Yi Hang-bok, on the other hand, could not possibly let the name Jeong Yeo-rip pass so lightly.
How long had it been since he had gone down to the countryside and formed the armed group called the Daedonggye? And yet he had a faction built up in Hanyang?
It was strange.
Yi Hang-bok belatedly ran over and shook the master carpenter, but the man had already lost consciousness.
"What did this man say at the end?"
"Jeong... what was it again?"
Dolseok, with his excellent memory, answered in the man's place.
"He said Jeong Yeo-rip."
"Can you take responsibility for that statement?"
Yi Hang-bok's entire atmosphere changed in an instant.
There was no trace left of the loose, carefree idler he had seemed to be until now. Instead, he was like a sharply honed blade.
He was just like Kanghyeok when holding a scalpel.
Dolseok did not dare answer at once and only swallowed dryly.
"Why aren't you answering?"
"Uh… yes. That's right. He definitely said Jeong Yeo-rip."
"Good. So that's what he said."
As the atmosphere turned serious, Kanghyeok also cautiously stepped in.
The name Jeong Yeo-rip did sound familiar, but he could not remember clearly.
It felt like he would know if he heard a little more.
"Just who is he, for you to react like this?"
"Ah, ah. It's nothing. He's just someone I know personally…"
The way he trailed off at the end was suspicious no matter how one looked at it.
But it did not seem as though pressing further here would get anything out of him.
"I see. Well... if he's someone you know, then I've unintentionally caused an offense."
Kanghyeok said that while looking around at the people sprawled all over the place.
Since Makbong had gone on such a merciless rampage, quite a few of them were seriously injured.
"No, no, not at all. Mm. Would it be all right if I took this man with me?"
Yi Hang-bok pointed at the unconscious master carpenter.
"Yes, of course."
"Good. Then... there's no need to rush my wife's treatment. I'll send word separately."
"Yes, understood. I need some time anyway."
"That works out well. Then you eat that pufferfish yourself. Hahaha."
"Yes, elder."
Yi Hang-bok quickly returned to his usual relaxed expression.
With his easy smile and the occasional light joke, he disappeared into the distance.
With the master carpenter loaded onto the horse he had ridden in on.
"Phew."
But once the mood had sharpened like that, it did not settle down easily.
Especially for Dolseok, who had met Yi Hang-bok's eyes directly, the shock was greater.
Had he not looked like nothing more than a cheerful idler all the way here?
Yet the moment the name Jeong Yeo-rip came up, he had changed into a completely different person, and it had made Dolseok's knees weak.
"Just who exactly is that gentleman?"
Makbong, still breathing hard, asked the question.
"He's Yi Hang-bok, serving as a Yejo Jwarang."
"Ahhh. No wonder…"
Makbong did not know what a Yejo Jwarang was, but to him it was obviously a very high office.
"With Yi Hang-bok and Jeong Yeo-rip involved, this is no ordinary matter."
Yeoju, who had belatedly joined them from among the onlookers, opened her mouth.
Her face was very dark, and it was obvious she knew something.
Come to think of it, among the people here, Yeoju was the only proper yangban.
"Ah, right. Yeoju would know something. Just who is this Jeong Yeo-rip, that he's reacting so strongly?"
"You don't know Jeong Yeo-rip?"
"No."
"Hah."
You call yourself a mess and a wreck, and sure enough, that's exactly what you are.
Yeoju began to explain with a somewhat surprised expression.
"Originally, Jeong Yeo-rip came from the Westerners. He was also very close to Yi I and Seong Hon, and because his scholarship was deep, he held many significant offices."
"Really? What kind of offices?"
"He also served as Yejo Jwarang... Ah! He also held the post of Hongmungwan Suchan."
"Ah... come to think of it, I feel like Father mentioned him a few times."
"I'm sure he did. I also heard he's one of my relatives."
"Really? A relative?"
"There has been no contact, so I do not know exactly what the relationship is."
Not that she had paid enough attention to hear it properly in the first place.
"Anyway, that was how it was at first, but little by little he began associating more closely with the Easterners. In the end, he even began openly criticizing Yi I and Seong Hon."
"Ah-ha."
As far as Kanghyeok knew, Yi Hang-bok belonged to the Westerners.
And not just that, he was Yi I's disciple.
It would be hard for him to have favorable feelings toward Jeong Yeo-rip.
"That's why he received a great deal of support from the Easterners. On the other hand, he was attacked by the Westerners."
"That makes sense. Sort of like the feeling of a traitor."
"He incurred the king's displeasure and returned to the countryside, and I hear he is now in Jinan, Jeolla-do. Because of that, it seems even the Easterners are not especially close with him now."
"So he's completely isolated."
"Yes, exactly."
If that was the case, then he did not seem especially worth worrying about.
Kanghyeok's own backing was far too thick for him to fear a kite whose string had already snapped.
He had Yejo Panseo Ryu Seong-ryong, and Ijo Panseo Kim Yungil—
"But then why would Elder Yi Hang-bok be so wary?"
"I hear that in Jinan he formed an organization called the Daedonggye."
"Daedonggye?"
"Yes. I only know what Father told me, so I do not know the details, but I hear it is a kind of armed group."
"An armed group."
Now that he had heard this much, something came back to him.
Jeong Yeo-rip. A man who, for the time, held rather revolutionary ideas.
He could not remember exactly what those ideas were.
But in any case, he did indeed cause a great incident.
Namely, in the form of the Gichuk Purge.
"Mm."
"It doesn't seem unreasonable that Elder Yi Hang-bok would react that way."
"Right. Now that I've heard it, I understand."
Kanghyeok nodded quietly.
"Ugh…"
It seemed some of the men who had been knocked down were waking up.
They could not quite rise, and could only let out groans.
It did not look like any of them would die if left alone, but a few were likely to end up crippled.
"What should we do with these men?"
Dolseok asked while cradling the basket Kanghyeok had been carrying.
Hm.
For now, it would be fine to set the Yi Hang-bok and Jeong Yeo-rip matter aside.
It was not something he could get involved in anyway, nor was he especially interested, nor did he even know much about it.
Whatever happens, the one who'll remain in history is Yi Hang-bok. As for Jeong Yeo-rip, he'll be dead within a few years anyway.
A person had to choose the right side to stand with.
If he stayed beside someone who would survive even after the Imjin War, wouldn't his own odds of living also increase?
Besides, he personally liked the man too.
If there was something he could do to help, it would be best to do it now.
And as it happened, there was a method.
Kanghyeok looked back and forth between the pufferfish poison in the basket and the men lying on the ground.
Right. Maybe I should take these bastards with me.
"Gather them all up and drag them back to the house."
"To the daegam's residence?"
"No. To the house the Busa lent us."
"Ah... are you practicing again?"
"That's right. Consider it payment for treatment."
"Yes, yes."
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