Chapter 7: The Gaming Den

Someone was watching Moyong Yeon, who wore an innocent smile.
The man, appearing to be in his early thirties, was named Jongwoo, a gambler belonging to the Black Wolf Sect.
He stroked the letter in his pocket and gave a sinister smile.

‘Moyong Yeon, you have come to the wrong place.’

[Send Moyong Yeon to the high-stakes game; prepare the gamblers.]

This was the content of the letter Jongwoo had received.
The high-stakes game referred to the second floor of the gambling den, a place where suckers’ money was fleeced.
Therefore, the order from the Black Wolf Sect was tantamount to instructing them to deplete Moyong Yeon’s entire fortune.

‘Keuk, it’s going to be fun after a long time.’

Jongwoo’s eyes sparkled.
He was particularly pleased with the target he was working on.

‘The Clan Head of the Moyong Clan, huh.’

Born a servant’s child, Jongwoo had grown up enduring the scorn of others due to his low birth.
Though he could now make a living with his sleight of hand, his inferiority complex about his origin had never disappeared.
When well-dressed young masters appeared in the gambling den, he would welcome them with open arms, eager to swindle them.
Although its prestige had faded now.
The target was the Clan Head of the Moyong Clan, one of the Five Great Clans?

‘Just thinking about the scoundrel kneeling and begging already excites me.’

Jongwoo smacked his lips.

“Wow, it’s amazing how a person can look like that.”

However, there was also something he disliked.
It was Jang Minyoung, the woman who was admiring Yeon’s appearance.
Jang Minyoung was a gambler, like Jongwoo, who manipulated suckers in the high-stakes game.
An old man named Wang, chuckling as if something enjoyable had happened, was also with them, but Jongwoo’s attention was solely on Jang Minyoung.
The reason?
It was obvious. It was love.

“What’s so good about that feminine-looking fella that you’re staring so much?”

Jongwoo sulked.

“Better than someone who looks like a squashed dog turd.”

“A squashed dog turd? Who looks like that?”

“Well…”

Jang Minyoung’s words trailed off vaguely.

‘Does she think I wouldn’t know her feelings just because she pretends not to be interested?’

Jongwoo suddenly felt impatient.

“Minyoung, I have something to tell you when this job is over.”

“Something to tell me…?”

He had often been waiting for an opportunity, and today seemed like the opportune moment.

‘If that Clan Head b*stard kneels and grabs my trousers, her opinion will change.’

Then it would be proven that he was better than that kid, and Jang Minyoung would accept his confession.
However, her face visibly soured upon hearing his words.

‘It must be my imagination.’

Jongwoo dismissed it casually.

A luxurious VIP room located on the second floor, where the results of fleecing suckers were confirmed.
A landscape painting by an unknown artist hung on the wall, framed in gold.
The windowless space was softly lit by yellow lantern light, creating an atmospheric ambiance.
In the center, a luxurious mahjong table made of red sandalwood rested on a red carpet.
And the attention of the three people near the table was focused on Yeon.

“Hello?”

Jongwoo looked at Yeon, who came up to the second floor with a confident demeanor, and felt certain.
The operation downstairs must have been successful.

‘Otherwise, he wouldn’t be like that.’

Moyong Yeon’s timidity was already known to everyone in the Bushin area.
His pale complexion suggested that he was indeed physically weak, but what stood out more were his spirited aura and bright expression.

‘To become so arrogant after just a few victories.’

Unaware that the stairs he had just climbed were a shortcut to the underworld.

‘He doesn’t even know what’s about to happen to him.’

“Everyone must have fawned over you outside, right? Here, status doesn’t matter, so I’ll speak casually. Kid.”

“Oh. Yes, sure. Go ahead.”

Jongwoo tried to provoke Yeon, but Yeon replied nonchalantly.

“Hello, handsome young master? I heard about you.”

“Nice to meet you, young man.”

Yeon greeted Jang Minyoung and Old Man Wang in turn.

Thud.

One by one, they took the empty seats at the table, and Yeon sat in the last remaining one.
In front of him lay the mahjong tiles.
That’s right. The game Yeon was about to play with them was mahjong.

Mahjong.
Simply put, it was a game where four people sitting at a table completed their own sets of tiles.
The rules varied slightly depending on the region.
At Tiger Moon Tower, they adopted several rules that added to the gambling fun, such as exchanging money based on accumulated points instead of just the pot, and rules with large point fluctuations.
The attendant in the blue robe made Yeon aware of this.

“Is it alright? Accumulating points is more fun and thrilling, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It sounds interesting.”

“You’re quite confident, aren’t you? Is a new winner going to emerge today? Old Man Wang, you better be nervous.”

“Hehehe.”

Jang Minyoung chattered playfully.
It was a kindness she didn’t show when others arrived.
At that sight, Jongwoo, feeling annoyed, picked a fight with Yeon.

“Hmph, does the kid even know how to hold mahjong tiles?”

“I know how to hold tiles.”

‘Know how to hold tiles,’ huh…
There was a sense of ease in the kid’s reply. It irritated him.
But soon, he let out a laugh.

‘To be trying to check a kid, what an embarrassment. How could he beat us when there are three gamblers who’ve been working together for years?’

But what he said was completely different.

“Right, who knows who will win. Try your best.”

Jongwoo smirked after saying it himself. It was merely a deceptive remark.

Sweat dripped down the backs of the three people, excluding Yeon.

‘What is this?’

Their gazes met Yeon’s, then dropped. He had a relaxed face.

“…”

Just until the early to mid-game, Yeon’s score was unmoving at the bottom.
It was natural since he hadn’t won a single game throughout several matches.
But now?
He had moved up from last place to third.
One might ask if it was just one rank up from last place.

‘This shouldn’t be possible.’

Jongwoo, who was in first place, was bewildered.
Why?
Because they had been colluding and playing the game from the start.
From the very first hand, they had been sharing their tiles through specific signals.
But now, they hesitated to send signals.
They felt that Yeon was making good use of the information they exchanged.

‘No one other than the three of us should know the signals, right?’

But the questions that arose were quickly put to rest.

‘Surely he didn’t figure out hundreds of hand signals in this short amount of time?’

Jongwoo shook his head.
It was impossible.

‘Is it luck?’

Yes, it had to be luck.
Even as their confusion accelerated, Yeon relentlessly climbed higher.
After that, Jongwoo had no time to pay attention to anything else.

Click. Clack.

Yeon’s hand movements, even picking up and discarding tiles, felt precise and disciplined.
Yeon’s subsequent movements were like those of a seasoned fighter.
Jongwoo was confused.
It felt as if this place had momentarily turned into a battlefield.

Whoosh.

Yeon wielded a fierce and sharp sword to attack his opponent…

Clang!

At the same time, he raised his shield to block the torrent of attacks from another person.
And the moment his opponent showed a weakness, he struck down without hesitation!

Thwack!

“Keuk!”

First, he seized Jang Minyoung’s points, then Old Man Wang’s.
The kid’s next target was…
Clearly himself.

Gulp…!

Jongwoo’s eyes met Yeon’s.
Yeon was staring at him intently, no different from a tiger facing its prey.

‘N-No!’

No, calm down.
The pressure weighed on his shoulders, but he couldn’t lose.
The situation that would follow his defeat to this kid was too terrible to even imagine.

‘Those Black Wolf Sect bastards are so ruthless…’

Jongwoo hastily checked his tiles with trembling hands.

‘I think I can win?’

Jongwoo was currently in a tingpai state.
Simply put, it meant he was on the verge of winning.
If he could just get the ‘Three Bamboos’ tile, which had three bamboo stalks drawn on it?

‘Victory is mine!’

Jongwoo looked at Yeon.
This was the end of the kid’s unbelievable luck.

‘I’ll show him a lesson, heheh.’

Tap. Thump.

Jongwoo signaled Jang Minyoung and Old Man Wang.
He needed the Three Bamboos.
At that moment, Old Man Wang began to scratch his nostril with his right hand.

‘That’s it!’

Jongwoo cheered. It meant Old Man Wang had the Three Bamboos tile.

Swish.

Jongwoo picked up the tile to discard.
And it was a fleeting moment until he placed it on the table.
Yet, it felt incredibly long to Jongwoo.
He had spent a long time in gambling dens, but he couldn’t help but be nervous.
But now it was over.

‘Kahaha! Is it I who gets to teach the naive young master about the world?’

Not only had the debt not been repaid, it had even increased, so the Moyong Clan’s destruction was only a matter of time.
Moyong Yeon would regret coming to the gambling den for the rest of his life.
He would cry, tears and snot flowing.
He might even kneel and beg for his money back.

‘How unsightly will that be? Minyoung will probably think I’m better than this guy by then.’

A thrilling sensation started from his toes and shot through his entire body to his head.

Thwack.

…The tile discarded by Old Man Wang was revealed on the table.
Jongwoo reached out his hand to take the tile without even looking.

‘It’s obviously Three Bamboos.’

And just as he was about to complete his hand!

“Hold it, stop!”

Yeon grabbed Jongwoo’s wrist and shouted.

“W-What?!”

“Ahaha. No matter how rushed you are, you should look at the tile before you take it!”

He didn’t have to say anything, Yeon understood why he was acting like this.
Such cases were usually obvious.
He couldn’t accept defeat!

‘I understand!’

Even if he was a fallen noble, he was still the Clan Head of a prestigious family, a kid.

‘His arrogance must have been sky-high.’

In such a situation, having won consecutively in a gambling den he had just entered.
His pride must have been through the roof.

“It’s regrettable, but the world doesn’t always go your way… This is clearly Three Bamboos, with three slender bamboos drawn on it… Oh? It’s Nine Circles?”

Jongwoo’s face instantly filled with bewilderment as he checked the tile.
What he held in his hand was Nine Circles, with nine circles drawn on it.
It was a completely useless tile for him right now.
Jang Minyoung and Old Man Wang looked at Jongwoo with puzzled expressions.

“Why Nine Circles?”

“Is there a problem?”

Seeing their reactions, it was clear that their signals had been mixed up somewhere along the way.
Yeon smirked at their reactions, then forcefully snatched the tile from Jongwoo’s grasp.
And Yeon shouted.

“Ron!” [TL Note: Ron (栄) is a mahjong term meaning “to win by claiming a discarded tile.”]

Ron.
It refers to the case where a hand is completed by claiming a tile discarded by someone else.
And in that case.
Yeon receives all the points from that person.
That was the rule.

‘I-Impossible!’

Jongwoo’s face turned ashen.
The game ended with Yeon taking all of his points.

‘If we end it like this, the Black Wolf Sect won’t leave us alone!’

The thought alone was terrifying.
Jongwoo grabbed Yeon.

“One more game!”

“Huh? But does everyone have money?”

“We can borrow it. Everyone’s fine with that, right?”

There was some mistake in this round.
But not in the next.
They were experts among experts.
Jang Minyoung and Old Man Wang agreed with Jongwoo, nodding with pale faces.

“Let’s play a little more. It’s fun, it’d be a shame to stop here, wouldn’t it?”

“I agree. We can always get more money. Heh heh.”

“Hey, you! Bring some money.”

While the attendant went to get the money.
They tried to act nonchalant, looking at Yeon.

“You’re really good, young man?”

“That’s what I’m saying. I’m truly surprised. Amazing, isn’t it?”

Jongwoo also smiled outwardly, but inwardly he ground his teeth.

‘Though his luck was excessively good this time, I’ll show you a lesson again, Moyong Yeon!’

They didn’t know.
That their own appearances were not much different from those of suckers losing money at a gambling den.

After quite some time.

“Oh, I won again.”

Yeon clinched victory three times in a row.
It was thanks to his excellent acting as a naive child.
But even Yeon didn’t expect it to work three times.
It seemed Moyong Yeon’s innocent face was quite effective.

‘Stupid fools. Trying to show off in front of a worm, and look at them now!’

Yeon snorted inwardly and scoffed at them.
The three gamblers, however, were still dazed, not understanding what had happened.

“What on earth is this…”

At that moment, someone suddenly entered the VIP room.
He didn’t have a formidable aura, but judging by his villainous appearance and the sword at his waist, he seemed far from an ordinary person.

‘Black Wolf Sect. Did Pil-Gu send him?’

As Yeon thought, the man was indeed sent by Pil-Gu.
The man had come expecting to see Moyong Yeon completely squander his fortune and then burst into tears, again in debt.
But seeing Yeon sitting triumphantly in his chair, he looked visibly bewildered.
Yeon scoffed inwardly, unseen.

‘Seeing his bewildered state makes me feel good. Why did you challenge me, then?’

He whispered something to the old man, who was the elder among them, and then the bewildered man hastily disappeared outside.
The old man’s face had turned pale.
The other two also looked terrible, needless to say.
On the other hand, Yeon’s eyes were full of amusement.

‘Hmph, well, it’s none of my business.’

Yeon checked the amount he had won.
Twenty thousand nyang and then some…
This should be about five thousand nyang.
Thanks to the group of swindlers who had played the game while in debt, it seemed there would be a considerable amount left over even after settling the Moyong Clan’s debt.

“How on earth…”

The old man sighed. His expression was one of disbelief.

“I guess I was lucky.”

Yeon replied slyly, but in truth, he had never believed in luck in his life.
Everything was due to his own skill.

‘They still don’t seem to realize that I deciphered their signals and used them against them.’

They must have felt something was strange, but they probably couldn’t be certain.
Naturally so, as the number of hand signals they exchanged amounted to hundreds.
From small gestures and movements to signals using nearby objects.
The position where a teacup was placed, the amount of alcohol in the teacup, etc.
Even they must have spent several months memorizing and coordinating them.
It was natural that they wouldn’t think a kid who was new to the gambling den could figure out and not only use but also disrupt their signals after just a few games.
Yeon asked with a tone full of amusement.

“So… shall we play one more game?”

He had seized the momentum.
It wouldn’t change no matter how many times they played.
The gamblers seemed to realize that.

‘The amount of money the Tiger Moon Tower has brought in just to deal with me must be enormous already…’

It would be crazy to continue.

“…”

“…”

“…”

A brief silence settled among the three gamblers.
Tension hung in the air.

‘The situation that will unfold next is obvious.’

Crash!

“You f*cking son of a bich!! You were the one who signaled for the Five Bamboos! What on earth happened?!”

Jang Minyoung finally exploded, flipping the table and grabbing Jongwoo’s collar.

“What? When did I?! I signaled for the Nine Circles! You said you understood!!”

A fight began.
When faced with an incomprehensible situation, they had to find someone to blame.

“Signals? What are you talking about?”

Yeon pretended to be surprised and looked at Old Man Wang.

“Indeed, that’s right.”

Old Man Wang’s face turned pale.

“B-Both of you, calm down.”

“Do we look calm now?! Old Man Wang, you say something too! Because of this squashed-dog-turd-looking bastard, we’re all screwed!!”

“Why me too…”

“Squashed-dog-turd-looking bastard?!”

It was utter chaos.
Yeon chuckled.

‘Well, they should have used proper words in front of a small fry like me.’

Jongwoo, who had been hit several times by Jang Minyoung, looked wronged, but this was a cheap price to pay in front of the Money Demon.
Before, he would have broken their wrists or legs.

Swish.

‘Now’s the time.’

Yeon began to collect the money, along with the knapsack he had brought.
But he felt a gaze from somewhere and raised his head.
The attendant who managed the VIP rooms on this floor was looking at Yeon with trembling eyes.
The attendant also looked visibly bewildered by Yeon’s unexpected victory.

“Ah.”

Amidst the chaos, Yeon, examining the now much larger bundle and the pocket containing the bank note, smiled faintly and said.

“The Tower Lord must still be busy, right? Please tell him Moyong Clan Head waited until he was tired and left.”