Chapter 42 : Breaking the Egg (2)

“We’re here. Get out.”

The carriage arrived at the Drunken Flower Garden.

‘It’s really all over now.’

Mongseol let out a deep sigh and opened the carriage door.

But a strange landscape appeared. She had arrived at a place she had never seen before, not the place she knew. Was this also the Drunken Flower Garden? Was there such a place in the Drunken Flower Garden?

“This place is…?”

“It’s the prison. You seem surprised, so it must be your first time? All the Deceitful Assassins come here. There’s nothing special, they just seem to do a little interrogation, so don’t be surprised.”

The woman who had been driving the carriage from the driver’s seat explained kindly.

The prison was by no means a kind place. It was even less of a place to be at ease.

Mongseol saw dozens of caves.

Caves had been artificially dug into a large cliff.

About one zhang into the cave, iron bars blocked the way. A small stone prison, large enough to hold one or two people, was waiting.

This was Mongseol’s first visit to the prison.

She was well aware that there was a punishment hall in the Drunken Flower Garden. She had also heard about the prison. But this was the first time she had visited the prison in person. The prison was installed in a place that no one knew.

It was a place you could never see unless you harmed the Drunken Flower Garden.

So the caught assassins, the Deceitful Assassins, also came here.

Mongseol realized that there were too many things she didn’t know about the Drunken Flower Garden. She had lived in the Drunken Flower Garden her whole life, and yet there were so many things she was hearing and seeing for the first time.

A woman in a red martial arts uniform came out of the prison.

“It’s a blindfold.”

She handed her a black cloth.

“What did I do wrong?”

Mongseol asked.

“The crime of being caught. It’s fine to lose your life. A Deceitful Assassin can bring disaster to the entire main garden. You were lucky and got out, but the other kids weren’t as lucky as you.”

Mongseol covered her eyes with the black cloth.

Hearing it, it was so. A caught assassin was worse than a killed assassin.

She had already learned this… but she had forgotten for a moment.

“Tell me everything that happened from the moment you received the assassination order and left the Drunken Flower Garden until now. Without any lies.”

“Everything?”

“Without a single omission.”

“Then it will take several days just to tell you.”

“Do you have something to do?”

“…”

“From now on, you and I will uncover the full story of this assassination, even if it takes a month, two months, or several years. Everything from the assassination until now, without a single omission. Hoho! We have plenty of time. We have nothing to do after eating, so let’s just chat.”

“Hoo! Alright. So, after receiving the order…”

“What time was it then? The time you received the order.”

“The hour of the dragon.”

“Without a single omission!”

“Yes. I will. After receiving the order at the hour of the dragon, I first went to the Treasure Pavilion.”

Mongseol continued to speak with the blindfold on.

There were many books in the Drunken Flower Garden’s Treasure Pavilion.

Before becoming an assassin, she had often visited it for martial arts secret manuals. When she had seen it with young eyes, there were no secret manuals that were not in the Treasure Pavilion. After becoming an assassin, she visited the Treasure Pavilion to obtain information necessary for assassinations.

Another function of the Treasure Pavilion was information gathering.

And there were also very unusual books in the Treasure Pavilion. They were cases of failed assassinations, and they were very specific. As you read the books, you would sometimes mistake yourself for being in the middle of an assassination. And you would realize at once why it had failed.

It seemed that those books had been written through this process.

How should she talk about Ah Geol?

In order to explain the process of escaping from the stable, she could not leave out the story of Ah Geol.

What the Drunken Flower Garden would be most curious about would also be her relationship with Ah Geol.

After killing Kang Jo, she had infiltrated the stable. She had met Ah Geol first, and had told him to put the saddle on the horse. At that time, Ah Sam had come in and pointed to the black horse, saying that that horse was better.

Up to that point, she had told the truth.

“Why did he say that?”

“I’m curious about that too.”

“You’ve never seen him before?”

“I rarely go outside. I don’t even go out once a month, so how would I know?”

“He just said that the black horse was better without any reason?”

The prison master even knew that the black horse was called Black Dog. She probably knew even more detailed circumstances.

“Yes. So I told him to change the saddle, and I escaped on the black horse.”

Up to this point, it was the truth. But from now on, she had to speak very carefully.

She had been caught in the Living Sword Sect’s formation. And she had suffered a very fatal injury. It was a deep wound that would require at least half a year of recuperation. Naturally, she could not move right away.

Ah Geol had treated such a wound in just a few days.

To tell that story, she had to talk about the green line leeches. And she also had to say why Ah Geol, who had nothing to do with her, had consumed such a spiritual creature as the green line leeches.

What she could say was, ‘I don’t know why he helped me.’

That was the truth. But if she said that here, she would never be able to leave. She would have to stay in the punishment hall until that reason was resolved. Her body would not be bound, but she would not be allowed to go outside either.

She had not been seriously injured in the formation. She had had a very difficult fight, but she had barely managed to escape. But it was also true that she had been injured. It was a light wound that would heal with a few days of rest.

“I’m tired, can’t I rest for a bit?”

“What did you do to be tired?”

“Do you have something to do? We have plenty of time anyway, so let’s take it slow. It’s not like your body is going to disappear.”

She needed time to put the story together.

The fight between Ah Sam and Ah Geol had overlapped with her assassination.

They had intended to fight the Living Sword Sect. They would have fought even if she had not carried out the assassination.

It was just that she had carried out the assassination at that time.

Although she had returned to the stable because she was not confident of escaping the Living Sword Sect’s net, they had not exchanged any particular words. Since their purposes were different, they had nothing to say to each other.

Ah Sam had told her to take the black horse.

In fact, the black horse was a stable horse. It was not Ah Sam’s or Ah Geol’s horse. So she had ridden it out.

After that, she had not seen the two of them.

She had no idea why the two had killed the Living Sword Sect disciples, or why they had caused such a commotion.

Mongseol created a story, putting together the time and place.

“Is what you’ve said so far the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then take off the blindfold.”

Mongseol took off the blindfold four days after entering the prison.

“Is it over?”

“Put your thumbprint on it.”

The prison master held out a thick book of about five volumes and an ink pad.

“Listen before you put your thumbprint on it. After you put your thumbprint on it, you cannot change the facts. So if there’s anything to change, change it now. We will confirm this fact, and if by any chance something different comes out…”

The prison master’s words trailed off.

Mongseol said, “Where should I put my thumbprint?”

She had put the story together meticulously in her own way.

There were many stories that only Ah Sam, Ah Geol, and herself knew.

There was a blank period of a few days from after she was hit by the formation until she did the Three Defenses and Shedding the Shell, and no one knew what had happened during that period. She could assert it. No one knew.

Ah Sam and Ah Geol were very meticulous.

While following the river, while training in the Blood Sword Sutra, and until the last moment of parting, they had not met anyone.

It was a period where there had been no contact with people at all.

Mongseol had left the events of that period as a blank. Since she had said that she had hidden, there was no way to confirm it.

It was said that it would take about three to four days for the prison to confirm the facts.

‘A Deceitful Assassin… it’s really a job that can’t be done. If I get caught twice, I’ll die of exhaustion.’

But was the Drunken Flower Garden such a meticulous organization?

Mongseol was surprised again and again. It was a part she would still not have known if she had not become a Deceitful Assassin.

Clatter!

The prison gate opened.

“You’ve worked hard. From now on, you’ll have to do your best not to get caught. This time, you were really lucky.”

The prison master said in a tone quite different from when she was interrogating.

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

Mongseol answered politely.

It was still too early to wake up from sleep.

Mongseol walked through the darkness and returned to the flower garden.

It was around midnight when she had left the prison, so the Drunken Flower Garden and the prison were about two two-hour periods apart.

“Ah! The smell of flowers!”

She smiled faintly.

From here on, it was the Drunken Flower Garden she knew. Flowers were in full bloom in the flowerbeds.

The assassins of the Drunken Flower Garden each cultivated their own flowerbeds.

Mongseol first looked at the flowerbeds.

If it had been bright, she would have greeted the garden master first, but it was still very early.

She walked to the flowerbeds, smelling the strong scent of flowers.

Flowers were also blooming in the flowerbed she had cultivated. She had not been able to cultivate it for a while, but it was still beautiful.

‘She took good care of it.’

When an assassin of the Drunken Flower Garden left on an assassination, the flowerbed she had cultivated would be cultivated by a colleague next to her instead.

Mongseol had also cultivated the flowerbeds of other colleagues several times.

As she looked around the flowerbeds, her eyes caught a small flower.

“Oh! You’ve bloomed!”

Mongseol’s face brightened and she approached the white flower.

It was so short that it was buried among the other flowers. Even when fully grown, it would only grow to about a handspan.

The color of the flower was unusually five-colored.

If you asked what the five colors were, it was difficult to say for sure. At night, it was black, and at dawn, it was white. In the daytime, it was red, and in the evening, it was golden. And just once a day, for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, it would take on a glossy blue color.

The Five-Colored Flower!

It was the flower that Mongseol cherished the most.

The Five-Colored Flower would die immediately if it came into contact with oil. It could not be touched by human hands either. It would die even if an animal just brushed past it.

It was a very difficult flower.

She had thought that all the other flowers would live, but only the Five-Colored Flower would die, but it had lived.

“Whoever took care of it, they did a very good job. Hoho!”

Mongseol smiled brightly for the first time in a long time.

“The garden master took care of it herself. She said that the Five-Colored Flower is extremely difficult to cultivate. She said how happy you would be to see it alive when you returned.”

“The garden master did?”

“She came every day to water it, cover it with soil, and prevent mice from coming. She took better care of it than you did.”

“I see.”

“Did you greet her?”

“She’s in a morning meeting. I was going to greet her after the meeting.”

“Greet her quickly.”

“Alright.”

Mongseol smiled brightly.

The Drunken Flower Garden master was her mother.

All the assassins of the Drunken Flower Garden revered and followed the garden master as their mother, but Mongseol followed her especially well.

It wasn’t that the garden master had treated her specially. She had treated her the same as the other assassins. Eating, dressing, sleeping… she had treated her the same in every aspect.

No, there was something special.

She shared a secret with the garden master.

The Blood Sword Sutra!

-This is a demonic art whose training is forbidden. But it is yours, so I am giving it to you. If you intend to train in it, do so carefully. You must not be discovered by anyone. And keep in mind that you will be expelled the moment you are discovered.

-Will it harm my body if I train in this?

-No.

-Then will my personality change?

-No.

-Then why is it called a demonic art?

-Because the person who trained in this did a lot of bad things. So martial artists shudder at the sight of this martial art. They will chase you with a club even if you just imitate this martial art. So you must never execute it in front of others.

-What did he do?

-I’ll tell you later. When you’re old enough to understand.

-Yes.

-If you train in this martial art, you cannot train in our martial arts. Because if the martial arts are mixed, the qi and blood will get tangled. You have to choose to train in only one, this or our martial arts, so think carefully and choose. If you train in this, you will have to train in secret, so you will become a fool who can’t even learn martial arts, and if you train in our martial arts, you can live with the other children, smiling. What will you train in?

-Can I train in this?

-If you want to.

-Then I’ll train in this.

She didn’t know why she had made that choice. She had just taken a liking to the martial art called the Blood Sword Sutra for no reason.

From then on, the garden master had secretly helped her with her training.

It was a secret.

A secret between the Drunken Flower Garden master and her.

(End of Chapter)