Chapter 2
The Daughter-in-Law of a Murim Family —
A short while later, I was sitting inside the shaking carriage with a blank expression when I quickly covered my mouth.
“Ugh.”
If I had known this would happen, I would have skipped breakfast.
The meal I had eaten to make sure I had enough energy for work was churning in my stomach, as if it was about to come back up through my throat.
“Excuse me, c-could you go a little slower…?”
I opened the window and pleaded in a weak voice. The man glanced at me and made a gesture with his hand.
The carriage, which had been shaking like crazy, became a little calmer.
However, my mood became even darker as I closed the window.
‘That man just now… Was he really running alongside the carriage at the same speed?’
Yeah.
There was absolutely no way I could escape.
‘The Family Head is waiting for you.’
‘I don’t know anything. I don’t even know his surname or his name. I haven’t seen him since we parted ways!’
‘Right now, you are the last trace left behind by the missing young master and the only clue we have. Furthermore, if he entrusted you with the family heirloom, it must have had a meaning beyond something simple.’
Originally, I had planned to tell them the truth.
That I had simply made up a story to raise the price of a jewel I happened to find.
If the innkeeper hadn’t secretly told me that the pawnshop owner had died, I would have confessed everything.
‘He died? Why did that man die?!’
‘Apparently, he insulted the family because he bought a family heirloom for the ridiculously cheap price of only 70 nyang of silver. It seems he must have offered much less than the item was actually worth.’
‘…….’
‘His head was separated from his body just like that!’
That was when I realized it.
If merely underpaying for a jewel was enough to get someone’s head chopped off, then I would definitely be in even greater trouble for spreading the lie that I had been involved with the missing young master.
This was the result of keeping my mouth shut.
A half-forced kidnapping.
The injustice I felt was beyond words.
‘And I only just found out that I had been scammed by that pawnshop!’
‘Listen carefully. The best thing you can do is never get involved with a Murim martial artist. If someone has a sword at their waist and gives off a strange feeling, just crawl away immediately.’
‘What if they break something in the inn?’
‘Don’t even think about asking them to pay. Just let them leave peacefully. Be grateful that your head is still attached to your body.’
I remembered the innkeeper’s warning from my very first day of work and grabbed my hair in frustration.
So this was how Gye Na-ri’s miserable life was going to end.
My vision began to blur.
How much time had passed?
While I was trapped in a state of extreme tension, my bladder began making its presence known.
Fuck.
Apparently, the suffocating fear wasn’t the only thing squeezing my life away.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Hold it. I have to hold it.’
I crossed my legs and gritted my teeth, but the longer time passed, the stronger my bladder’s presence became.
Terrible images began floating around inside my head.
Fine.
Even if I was going to die, I had to protect my dignity as a human being.
Gathering every bit of courage I had, I suddenly threw open the window.
“I need to stop at an inn for a moment.”
“I was ordered by the Family Head to bring you back as quickly as possible.”
As expected, the man pretended not to hear me.
But I had already lost my sanity in more ways than one.
I stuck my head out the window and spoke through gritted teeth, emphasizing every word.
“Stop the carriage at an inn.”
“…….”
“Otherwise, you’ll be taking my corpse with you.”
Only then did the man look directly at my disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, and he flinched.
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
“I feel like I’m going to explode.”
“Explode? What exactly is going to explode?”
“My bladder.”
The man was silent for a moment after hearing my desperate answer.
Then he quietly replied,
“There is an inn right ahead. I will stop for a moment.”
Fucking bastard.
He was saying that he had seen an inn right in front of us but still refused to stop.
As soon as the carriage stopped, I charged toward the inn like an angry bull.
“Where’s the bathroom?!”
“U-Um, upstairs.”
“Thank you! May you be blessed!”
I flew upstairs without even stopping to breathe and managed to protect my dignity as a human being by a hair’s breadth.
“That was close…”
Only after overcoming the crisis did I remember the situation I was in.
“Should I just run away from here?”
Maybe I could escape through the back door somehow?
I was thinking about it as I came out into the hallway when it happened.
I failed to notice the person walking toward me from the opposite direction and lightly bumped into his shoulder.
The man I bumped into suddenly let out a loud groan.
“Ow, ow, ow.”
“……?”
The man, who looked about twice my size, glared at me while clutching his arm.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m sorry. I must have been distracted because I was thinking about something else.”
I quickly apologized, but the drunk man seemed to think that wasn’t enough and pointed at his clothes.
“Look at my clothes! They’re wrinkled! You have to compensate me!”
Wrinkled, my ass.
‘This guy is a scammer.’
I suppose wherever there are people, there are people like this.
Even Murim had these kinds of people.
I replied bluntly,
“I don’t have any money.”
“What? You don’t have any money?”
The man’s face twisted, but soon he burst out laughing.
“Puhahaha!”
Then, with a lecherous smile, he slowly approached me.
“If you don’t have money, shouldn’t you pay with your body instead?”
The man roughly pulled me into his arms and chuckled.
“That’s great. I haven’t had a proper good time in a while.”
Just as I was about to push him away irritably, another thought came to me when I saw the man’s broad upper-body muscles.
“Excuse me.”
“Hm?”
“Are you strong?”
“What?”
“I mean, are you good with your strength?”
The man frowned at the unexpected question.
“Can’t you understand what’s happening right now?”
“No. I understand the situation better than anyone.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“No, I just thought that if you want to show off your strength, I might be able to find you a suitable opponent.”
At least, his body looked pretty solid.
The problem was whether he was strong enough to beat the man who could run alongside the carriage.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Just come to the room with me quietly.”
Just as the man tried to drag me away, someone suddenly stepped in.
“I believe you should stop now.”
At the old monk’s words, the man shouted irritably.
“You! Who are you to interfere?!”
The monk paid no attention to the man’s fierce attitude and quietly spoke.
“Mujin.”
Then, a young monk who had been hiding his presence so completely that I hadn’t even noticed he was there approached us.
His hand lightly struck the back of the man’s neck.
The large man who had been dragging me around like a sheet of paper slowly collapsed.
It happened so quickly that I stared down at the unconscious man in confusion while rubbing my aching wrist.
“Are you all right?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem that you were seriously injured.”
As I listened to the young monk’s polite reply, I quietly looked him over.
Someone capable of knocking out such a large man with a single move couldn’t possibly be an ordinary monk.
These people…
They were Murim martial artists.
‘Should I ask them for help instead?’
I was being dragged away against my will. I could ask them to help me.
They had already stepped in to help someone they didn’t even know, so perhaps they would help me if I explained my situation.
The old monk, who saw me hesitating, spoke kindly.
“Young benefactor, it seems you were quite frightened.”
“Excuse me…”
“There is no need to thank us. Helping the weak is simply something a practitioner must do.”
“No, that’s not it. There is something else I would like to tell you.”
“You wish to tell me something?”
When I cautiously spoke up, the monk looked at me curiously.
Just as I was about to open my mouth—
“Miss.”
A familiar figure appeared among the people and called out to me.
My expression stiffened, and the old monk turned around.
The next moment, to my surprise, the monk immediately approached the man who had come looking for me and greeted him warmly.
“What brings Chief Bang here?”
The man called ‘Chief Bang’ glanced at me before responding to the old monk’s greeting.
“Bang Jin-woo of the Huangbo Family pays his respects to Great Master Gongjin of Shaolin.”
Although Murim wasn’t exactly my preferred genre, I wasn’t completely ignorant of it.
Thanks to trying out a little bit of every genre, I at least knew the basic setting.
Shaolin.
Wasn’t that one of those famous orthodox sects that often appeared in Murim novels?
The corners of my mouth lifted.
What luck.
I thought some thug had picked a fight with me, but it turned out he had brought a Shaolin monk with him?
And judging by the title ‘Great Master,’ he must be a pretty important person, right?
Then I could explain my unfortunate situation to that monk and get that man from the Huangbo Family to—
‘Huh? Wait. What did he just say?’
Huangbo Family?
Did that man just say that he himself belonged to the Huangbo Family?
My active mind suddenly stopped.
I had heard the name Huangbo Family somewhere before.
Suddenly, I remembered what my friend, who had always tried to convince me that Murim novels were actually fun, had once told me.
‘The Huangbo Family? Is it a good family?’
‘It’s a prestigious family with a long history. They’re especially famous in the Murim world for being very straightforward and honest. They basically protect the weak and uphold justice, but they’re also famous for showing absolutely no mercy to people who deceive them.’
‘Really?’
‘If we’re talking purely about martial strength, they’re probably one of the top five Murim families.’
So, basically…
I was a crazy woman who had lied to the Huangbo Family, one of the most powerful families in the Murim world, claiming that I was the lover of their missing young master, and then sold a family heirloom that had supposedly been passed down for generations for only 70 nyang of silver.
That was me.
Right now.
“Miss?”
Seeing me frozen in place, the young monk cautiously asked,
“Are you all right?”
Maybe it was because I had suffered too great a shock.
I couldn’t even bring myself to answer that I was fine.
I just opened and closed my mouth a few times before rolling my eyes back and fainting on the spot.
“Miss!”
Someone, please tell me this is just a dream.
