In a back alley of Luoyang:

“The heads have been properly hidden!”

The severed heads of the merchants were stashed in an abandoned warehouse, just as arranged with the client. With that, the contract was successfully fulfilled. But the most important part remained.

“This way! Hurry!”

The mercenary band, having all but butchered the Ganghwa Merchant Alliance, began a hasty retreat.

“Did you spend all the money I gave you on booze?! Why are you so damn slow?! Run like your asses are on fire!” the mercenary captain shouted, directing her men down the alley before taking up the rear herself.

“Captain…!” one of her men called out, running alongside her. “Are you really sure we can get out of this mess alive after what we’ve done?!”

Instead of answering, the captain glanced up as she ran and let out a bellow. “You bastards…! What’s so interesting to look at?! You want your eyes plucked out?!”

Her voice was thick with killing intent.

“H-hiiiik…!”

The residents who had been peeking down at them from the alley’s buildings quickly slammed their windows shut.

“Captain! There are too many witnesses…!” her subordinate said, his voice filled with concern. The people of Luoyang were notoriously indifferent to the affairs of others, but that all changed when a bounty was involved. If the security administration came asking, they would tell them everything, and even invent things they hadn’t seen.

“It’s fine! Don’t worry!” the captain replied decisively, though in truth, she had no real certainty herself.

“Found the entrance to the underground waterway!” a subordinate reported.

“Get in there! All of you!” she roared.

While her men secured the grated entrance with chains they had prepared in advance to delay any potential pursuit, she pushed past her panting subordinates and headed deeper into the tunnel.

“Hoh…! You’ve arrived just in time!”

A middle-aged man holding a silk lantern was waiting for them.

“Alright, so…” the mercenary captain began, forcing down her ragged breaths, her voice a low growl. “Are you going to make good on your big talk from the contract and get my mercenaries out of Luoyang?”

“Of course!” The middle-aged man laughed heartily and spread his hands. “Trust in us, the Hwallo Merchant Guild! The first, the best, the foremost escape specialists in Luoyang—no, in the entire Central Plains!”

It was none other than the former director of the Hwallo Merchant Guild, the very man who had smuggled the Spring of Luoyang vigilantes out of the city at dawn.

“This is suspicious…” the mercenary captain’s lieutenant said, stepping forward with his hand on his sword. “You plan to escape through the underground waterways? I heard that was impossible.”

“Goodness, no!” the former director waved his hand dismissively. The lantern in his hand cast dancing, chaotic shadows on the walls. “The waterways are a dreadful place on a normal day, but right now, they’re crawling with lost ‘hounds.’ If you go in now, ten out of ten of you will die!”

“Hounds…?” The mercenaries had no idea that the ‘hounds’ he was referring to were the infamous Tamrang of the former Martial Righteous Alliance.

“We will simply be passing through the ‘shallow depths’ of the waterways for a short time…” He paused, a meaningful smile spreading across his face, before exclaiming, “And then we will walk right out the city gates!”

“Walk out…?”

As looks of suspicion appeared on every face, the former director thumped his chest. “Put your worries aside and prepare to be amazed!” He gave them a playful wink. “A previous client of mine said our work was like magic!”

***

At the Luoyang Central Administration, Security Annex[1]:

“Incident reported in the Gahyo district! Requesting backup!”

“Tell them we have no one to spare!”

The annex building, also known as the Central Security Administration, was in a state of utter chaos.

“My head! Don’t take my head! Give it back, you motherfuckers!” A shirtless man, covered in blood, was spewing curses at the city guards dragging him away. He was, of course, not referring to his own head.

“The head is evidence! Confiscate it!”

At the constable’s order, a guard took the leather sack with a look of disgust. A steady stream of crimson blood dripped from it. The sack contained the head of a merchant, the result of the man’s raid on a small merchant family.

“…Crazy bastard,” the constable muttered, watching the man continue to scream as he was hauled away. But his curse was not directed solely at him.

“Let go of me while I’m asking nicely!”

“You want your head smashed in?! Come on, you bastards!”

In another corner, a group of mercenaries captured at one of the scenes had armed themselves with furniture and were in a standoff with the guards.

“We have an emergency patient!”

In yet another area, one contractor had just beaten another to death with a chair. “Tsk,” she spat on the corpse and threw down the bloody chair. “That’s what you get for sniffing around the head I called dibs on, you bastard.” She was promptly beaten down by the onrushing guards. It seemed those with old grudges were settling their scores.

“…Sir.” A junior constable approached his senior. “I’ve lost count of how many incidents we’ve had. We don’t even have the manpower to respond to new reports anymore.” The junior constable shook his head. “I haven’t even had time for a single cigarette. I’m about to die.” It wasn’t even lunchtime, but his face was already a mask of utter exhaustion.

“Dealing with assassins from an assassination squad is never easy, is it?” The rest of the squad had escaped from the scene. They had only managed to capture one, who had been wounded and abandoned by his comrades. “Those bastards are a stubborn lot.” The senior constable took out a cigarette and chuckled.

“Hah. Don’t even get me started,” the junior said, accepting the cigarette his senior offered. “No matter what we do, his mouth is sealed shut. At first, I thought he didn’t have a tongue and we had to force his mouth open.” They had only found a hidden weapon inside.

“So, this string of beheadings is still a complete mystery.”

“Because not a single one of the arrested bastards will talk.” The junior constable sighed. “Besides, they’re all the type to move for money alone. They probably don’t even know the reason for the hits.”

The senior constable used one of the office lanterns to light his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke like a sigh. “This whole crazy situation has all of Luoyang trembling in fear.” His voice was low, lest others overhear. “I heard that pedestrian traffic in the main boulevards, which didn’t even flinch during the war between the great families, has dropped sharply.”

“…I heard the merchants are scrambling to hire mercenaries and vagrants warriors.”

Normally, a string of incidents of this magnitude would have been enough to lock down the entire city. But the high-ranking officials, wary of the Luoyang Sword Clan, were dragging their feet. Something about a political issue that had occurred between last night and this morning, but a lowly constable had no way of knowing the details.

“The Vice-Governor of Luoyang must be cursing the absent Governor to high heaven right now.”

The senior constable offered a wry smile. “He’s probably envying the absent Governor more than cursing him.”

Just as the junior constable was taking a long drag from the cigarette his senior had given him to light his own—

“Please, help me!”

A nobleman in fine silks cried out from the main entrance. He had run here in such a hurry that he was only wearing socks.

“The Grand Young Master…!”

The Grand Young Master? Which Grand Young Master? All eyes in the room turned to him.

The old man, his hands trembling, cried out once more. “The Grand Young Master of the Sword Clan is after my life!”

At his words, the unsmoked cigarette dropped from the junior constable’s lips and rolled across the floor.

***

“I will answer any question you have. But first, you must guarantee my protection.”

“You are under our protection as we speak. Rest assured and tell us what happened.”

The senior constable, now sitting opposite the nobleman, began his questioning. “The Grand Young Master of the Sword Clan.” He scratched his head, first confirming what he had just heard. “Are you referring to the Grand Young Master of ‘that Luoyang Sword Clan’?” His voice was a low whisper. Neither ‘Luoyang Sword Clan’ nor ‘Grand Young Master’ were names one wanted to be overheard speaking.

“Yes,” the nobleman replied, his bloodshot eyes darting around nervously. “The ‘that Grand Young Master’ of the Luoyang Sword Clan.”

The constable’s mind raced. “That’s strange…?” The junior constable, standing to the side with his arms crossed, frowned. “That Grand Young….” He glanced around cautiously and changed his phrasing. “That person has been at the center of a lot of noise recently, but isn’t he generally known to be fair and just?” It was hard to believe such a person would be behind these maniacal acts.

“…We thought so too.” The nobleman sighed, burying his trembling hands in his face. “But we were wrong. That man is a complete madman.”

“Just…” the senior constable said, his expression one of utter confusion. “Just what happened? Why is this Grand Young Master after people’s lives?”

“It is all because we were arrogant. We were too arrogant.” The old man’s legs trembled, and he began to bite his nails. “We touched the dragon’s reverse scale. It was practically suicide…!”

The constables couldn’t make any sense of his words. “Please, be a little more specific.” This was their first witness. And if the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan was involved, this was no ordinary matter. Not that a situation where the city was drowning in a sea of blood was ordinary to begin with. “What did the people being hunted do to this Grand Young Master?”

The old man’s focus was shaky, his eyes bloodshot. “It wasn’t something we did to that mad Grand Young Master.” His gaze, too, was wavering. “It was something we did to his younger sisters and allies, the third and fourth young ladies.”

“The third and fourth young ladies’ merchant associations? The third and fourth young ladies of the Sword Clan?”

“Yes. It all started when….”

Though the old man was rambling, he just barely managed to explain the cause of the current situation to the constables.

“This level of retaliation for a hostile business practice?” The junior constable shook his head. “That makes no sense at all—.”

The nobleman shrieked, “That’s why I told you he’s a madman!”

“According to your testimony…” the senior constable began, pressing his fingers to his forehead. “The mercenary bands, assassination squads, professional contractors, and day-hire thugs who are carrying out these attacks…” His brow furrowed deeply. “Are you saying they are all acting on the Grand Young Master’s orders?”

“Of course not!”

The junior constable grumbled, “First you say it was his doing, and now you say it wasn’t. What is it, then?”

“Oh, merciful Buddha…!” The old man pounded his chest in frustration at their inability to follow. “Do you think a devilish madman like him would dirty his own hands?! Of course, there are others to do the dirty work for him!”

“And who might these ‘others’ be?”

“How should I know?!” the nobleman screamed, his bloodshot eyes turning an even deeper shade of red. “It could be a specific group, or certain families. Or it could be other powerful individuals…!”

It was an incident on a scale a mere constable could hardly imagine.

“…”

The junior constable sighed and crossed his arms behind his back. The senior constable took a drag from his cigarette and pulled the ink stone and other stationery from a pile of documents.

“…I understand the situation. Let’s start by taking a proper statement.”

The old man shot to his feet. “Do you really think taking a statement is going to solve anything in this situation?!” His eyes were no longer just bloodshot; they looked as if they were about to pop out of his head, and his face was flushed crimson. “Our opponent is that Grand Young Master! There is nothing you people can do!” He slammed his hands on the desk repeatedly. “So stop this useless charade and just properly protect….”

The old man swayed. “Protect… properly…”

The constables’ eyes widened. “S-sir? Sir?”

As the junior constable moved toward him, the senior, sensing something was wrong, grabbed his shoulder.

“Kulgh…!”

The old man, his face now a deep purple, vomited a bowlful of blood. It was black, dead blood.

“What in the…?”

The old man’s legs gave out, and he collapsed, his head landing in the pool of his own black blood.

“…In the end, I could not escape the wrath of the enraged dragon…”

Those were his last words. As he lay dead, a stream of black blood continued to ooze from his mouth.

“…Poison!” the junior constable cried out, covering his face in horror.

“His complexion was strange from the start,” the senior constable said, backing away from the body and gritting his teeth. “…He was already poisoned when he came in?”

Just then, a guard rushed in from the entrance. “Incident reported in Tanryunggu! A large-scale battle has broken out between a merchant merchant guild’s hired mercenaries and an unknown armed group!”

The senior constable threw his cigarette to the floor. “Goddammit. What a fucking day.”