The Fierce Rain Against Gugok Floodgate

The rain lashing Gugok Floodgate was thick and fierce. Muddy water surged over the channel and scraped at the timber reinforced auxiliary embankment. Seok Muan tore off his soaked rain hat and hurled it aside, gasping for breath. His shoulders sagged under the weight of his cotton coat, blackened with rainwater. The laborers stood in the workyard gripping their iron crowbars, glaring at the floodgate's joints without moving. To the naked eye, the body of Gugok Floodgate was twisted to a dangerous degree. The bar sealing the western channel had already bent past its limit, and river water was pouring through the gap.

"Senior brother, wages are two months overdue. Yesterday even the food ran out. The people say they won't hold the floodgate with their bare hands anymore. If this goes on, the embankment will burst before the night is through."

Seok Muan's voice went ragged as he fought to be heard over the rain. Cha Yeonho sat on a rock beside the floodgate, watching the speed of the water pouring through the gap. His left thumb pressed into his palm out of habit. The sensation of bones grinding out of place and muscle pulling taut was sharp even in the rain. Cha Yeonho stood and gathered up his soaked ledger. The reconstruction funds for Hoeryu Gate had already run dry, spent on repairing the main hall and treating the senior disciples. Even the remaining food had stopped arriving because the supply road was blocked.

Im Bokjin backed away from the center of the commotion and slipped into a makeshift shed behind the warehouse, where the tolls were collected. Cha Yeonho followed and opened the door to find ledgers scattered across the floor, smeared with rainwater and reeking of mildew. Im Bokjin was on his knees, scraping something together. His fingertips fumbled, trying to wipe away ink blurred by rain.

"Put that down."

Cha Yeonho said it low, closing in. Im Bokjin's shoulders shook as he lifted his head. His eyes darted nervously. Cha Yeonho settled his weight into his heels and steadied his breathing, the way he would before a technique. Im Bokjin's ragged breath carried through the sound of the rain. Just as Cha Yeonho reached out his right hand to seize Im Bokjin's wrist, his left thumb screamed with a sudden, sharp pain.

In that instant, Cha Yeonho's movement faltered. Im Bokjin used the gap to swing a plank studded with iron nails. Cha Yeonho ducked, but muddy water splashed across his left shoulder. The strain had thrown his left arm into a cramp. As his breathing broke, a tightening pain followed through his chest. It had been a misjudgment. His body confirmed again what he already knew: simply overpowering Im Bokjin would not solve this.

"It wasn't my idea. The order came down from the merchant guild. Delay the floodgate repairs on purpose, collect more in tolls, and send the surplus up to the guild. That's all it was. I was just the one passing the order along."

Im Bokjin sank to the ground, his voice cracking. He pulled a wet bundle from inside his coat and threw it down. On it, the wave crest seal of the Baekryang Merchant Guild was stamped clear and unmistakable. Beneath it were the names of young disciples, each marked with two small dots. Cha Yeonho picked up the seal. As he scanned the ledger, his eyes narrowed. Im Bokjin's confession was plain. Page after page showed Hoeryu Gate saddling laborers without martial skill with unfair debts, debts that were then funneled back into the guild's profits.

"Im Bokjin, did you know what would happen if you hid this ledger?"

Cha Yeonho held the ledger up to Im Bokjin's face. Im Bokjin shook his head and pressed his forehead into the mud.

"I didn't want to die. If the sect threw me out for being useless with even a rope, I'd have starved on the spot. But last week, when one of the floodgates was about to collapse, I snuck in and drove in a wedge. That was my own doing. The guild wanted the repairs delayed, but I couldn't stand watching people die."

Cha Yeonho paused at that answer. It would have been easy to let his anger loose or punish Im Bokjin on the spot. But what he needed now wasn't punishment, it was hands to hold the failing floodgate together. Cha Yeonho tucked the ledger away and went back outside. The rain showed no sign of letting up. Outside the floodgate, Seok Muan stood with the laborers. Their eyes moved warily between the ledger in the senior disciple of Hoeryu Gate's hand and Im Bokjin following behind him.

"Seok Muan, bring the roster."

Cha Yeonho called out loudly through the rain. Seok Muan, flustered, held out the worn shift roster. Cha Yeonho sat down right there, opened it, and checked the overdue wages against the ledger one by one.

"As of today, Hoeryu Gate is converting the entire reserve fund set aside for reconstruction into wages. Today's pay will be given out immediately, and the two months of back pay will be settled in full within the week. Anyone who needs treatment can go straight to the senior disciples' clinic room, which will be opened right now."

The area went quiet. Only the sound of the rain filled the air. One of the laborers stepped forward and looked Cha Yeonho straight in the eye.

"We're tired of promises with nothing behind them, senior brother. Who was it that drove us into this in the first place?"

Instead of answering, Cha Yeonho set the guild's ledger, handed over by Im Bokjin, on the ground. Beside it, he pressed his own Hoeryu Gate seal.

"This ledger is the proof. Any sect code entangled with the guild is abolished, effective now. From this point on, the safety of this floodgate and the compensation of the laborers are Hoeryu Gate's responsibility, and Hoeryu Gate's alone. I'll stay here. Until this floodgate is secure, I won't leave this place, and I'll work the repairs alongside you. If I break that promise, you can take my left hand for it."

Cha Yeonho raised his left hand. Veins stood out sharply on the back of his hand, pale from the cold rain. Seok Muan stared at that hand for a long moment, then nodded silently. He gave the laborers a look. After an uneasy silence, a few of them picked up their crowbars again and headed back to the floodgate. Cha Yeonho started to let out a breath of relief, then stopped. A throbbing pain rose from deep in his chest. It was the price of a reckless call.

Just then, a messenger came running down the hillside beyond the floodgate. Soaked through, he came to a stop in front of Cha Yeonho. Gasping for breath, he pulled a sealed letter from inside his coat and handed it over. Cha Yeonho took the letter and saw the seal of Jin Mugyeol, the sect leader, stamped on it. He unfolded it and a short line caught his eye. [Approval completed for outside oversight of floodgate management rights and a settlement audit, with a representative to be dispatched from the Baekryang Merchant Guild. Join the settlement elder immediately and complete the repair report.]

Cha Yeonho's eyes wavered. Every responsibility he had just promised the laborers was now at risk of being swept back to square one by the guild's intervention. Cha Yeonho gripped the ledger tight. The smell of fresh ink from the newly arrived document stung his nose like something raw. The urge rose in him to tear the paper apart, but he folded the letter neatly instead and tucked it inside his coat. It was evidence, and it was also a shackle that would bind him by tomorrow morning.

"Senior brother, what does this letter mean? Is the settlement elder coming?"

Seok Muan asked. Cha Yeonho didn't answer. He looked once more at the twisted joints of the floodgate through the rain. The guild's representative would arrive tomorrow morning. If they couldn't fix this floodgate solid before then, the laborers' trust, and the dignity of the sect he was trying to protect, would be swept away along with it. Cha Yeonho pushed down the pain in his left hand and lowered his body onto the muddy floor of the floodgate.

"From now on, we handle this ourselves. Seok Muan, call the workers together. We seal every gap in this floodgate before morning."

Cha Yeonho's voice was firm. He gripped the rope in the rain. Before the pressure of the guild, the cold feel of the iron against his fingertips felt far more urgent. The laborers' footsteps grew busy again, turning back toward the floodgate. Cha Yeonho pushed the wet ledger deep into his coat and lowered his stance once more, bracing his body to take the floodgate's weight.

This time there could be no mistake. His left hand cramped as it took the vibration climbing up the rope. His muscles screamed, but Cha Yeonho clenched his jaw and steadied his breathing. Memories of his past life, when a single misjudgment had led to the annihilation of the entire sect, flickered through his mind like the rain. But the rough hands and the smell of sweat from the laborers in front of him now felt far more real, far weightier, than that memory.

"Senior brother, the water level is rising!"

Someone's urgent shout rang out. Cha Yeonho cut through the rain and threw himself toward the floodgate's central axis. The weight bearing down on his shoulder was heavier than he'd expected. His bones screamed, but he held his center to the end. Before the guild's audit report arrived, he needed to leave proof that this floodgate had not fallen. That was the only resistance available to him. Cha Yeonho pressed his body against the floodgate's joint and, drawing on his last strength, forced the bar shut. A sharp sound of metal locking into place cut through the noise of the rain.

The floodgate began to settle back into place, bit by bit. Cha Yeonho's left hand had turned red, but he didn't let go of the rope. The laborers followed his lead and took hold of the rope behind him. Their ragged breaths merged into one. Only then did Cha Yeonho see, through the rain, the lights of the main hall. He thought of what would happen tomorrow morning when the guild's representative arrived. He checked the ledger inside his coat again.

It was not just a scrap of paper listing contradictions in the sect code. It was the blueprint of a grave the guild had dug to strangle Hoeryu Gate. Cha Yeonho gave Seok Muan a look. Seok Muan seemed to grasp his meaning and stepped back, gathering up the wet roster. The floodgate was, for now, secure. But the rain was only growing heavier. Cha Yeonho rose out of the mud and looked once more at the letter the messenger from the main hall had left behind. The small wave crest seal pressed at the bottom of the letter caught his eye. It was not simply the guild's seal. It was pressed at the exact same spacing as the mark stamped beside the young disciples' names in Hoeryu Gate's ledger. Cha Yeonho's heart went cold.

The guild had already reached deep into the inner workings of Hoeryu Gate. Far beyond simply fixing a floodgate and paying laborers their wages, a far larger debt was waiting for him. Cha Yeonho wiped the rain from his face and walked toward the floodgate management office. In his hand was the audit order that had just come from the main hall, one he could not refuse. Tomorrow morning, he would have to lay this document out in front of the guild's representative and the sect's elders. And when that moment came, he would have to decide which seat to take and which ledger to open first. Cha Yeonho felt the pain in his left hand and checked the key to the old archive once more. All preparations were complete. As long as the rain kept falling, his fight would not stop either. Cha Yeonho disappeared into the darkness. Behind him, the great doors of Gugok Floodgate swung shut with a heavy sound, soaked through with rain. Tomorrow's pressure was already waiting for him.