Chapter 16: Chapter 16

A hawk was flying in the clear, cold sky.

Flying high in the sky, the hawk scanned the lush forest, riverstream, and valley. It was to find prey. The creature liked small prey like mice or snakes, but today it hoped to find a carcass of a large animal instead. Naturally, rather than hunting painfully, simply landing and tearing at meat was far more comfortable.

In the eyes of such a creature, something stretched out by the riverbank was visible.

The hawk soon circled around a corner of the sky, confirming the appearance of the stretched-out object. What looked like a person was fallen with his head stuck by the riverbank, and a horse was grazing grass around him. To the hawk, it was a sight difficult to understand what the situation was.

However, for the creature, it was hard to miss an opportunity to solve today’s meal without much effort. So the creature slowly glided downward. Rather than landing directly on the fallen person, it landed on a tree near the riverbank. It intended to watch the situation a bit more closely.

In the hawk’s eyes, the upper body of the fallen person was visible. Seeing his right shoulder dyed red, it seemed clear that he had suffered a large wound. Perhaps coming to the riverbank to wash that wound, he had collapsed without being able to endure any further and died.

Then what about the horse grazing grass beside him? The hawk thought there was no need to care. In the hawk’s memory, horses that were with humans were always stupid and blank. Even if it approached and tore at the carcass now, there would be no reaction.

The hawk attempted to spread its wings and fly to the person who appeared to be a carcass. However, at that moment, someone appeared from over the riverstream. The hawk quickly folded its wings and watched the situation.

The person who appeared was a girl carrying a straw basket. Seeing the girl’s clothes and brown skin, the hawk could tell she was one of the humans living gathered at the upper reaches of this river. The creature hoped she would simply leave the carcass alone and disappear. Because humans strangely liked burying their carcasses in the ground or covering them with stones.

However, contrary to the hawk’s expectations, the girl began to approach cautiously toward the fallen carcass, the hawk wanted it to be a carcass. By that time, the hawk should have been surprised once, and that was because of the figure of the horse blocking her way.

The brown horse, which had been leisurely grazing grass until a moment ago, now snorted while looking at the approaching girl as if becoming a loyal hound guarding its master. However, the girl approached cautiously, raised both hands, and stroked that horse’s neck to calm it down.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt him. You are a loyal fellow. Smart, too.”

The brown horse, which had seemed to growl like a real dog, soon whinnied ‘Puhining’ as if feeling good from the girl’s touch and praise, leading her toward the carcass.

With cautious hands, the girl pulled the carcass out of the water and began inspecting it. And she began to perform the worst action for the hawk watching the situation. Grunting, she lifted the carcass, placed it on the horse’s saddle, and began pulling the reins toward the upper reaches of the river.

The hawk deliberated whether to fly over now and drive the girl away, but feeling that it would uselessly waste energy without gaining anything, it eventually just flew away. It seemed better to find another target even now.

The girl leading the horse reins turned her head and looked back at the hawk flying into the distant sky. Between the clouds flowing dotted across the blue sky, a dark speck receded into the distance.

Looking at it for a moment, the girl turned her body and pulled the reins again. The brown horse, Jojo, followed right behind her trotting as if enjoying the touch of the girl stroking his neck.

* * *

“Name, Jang Geon. Age, appears late twenties. Martial arts level, even at minimum, Martial Alliance Patrol expert class… Is this really all?”

Jeok-sein looked at her counterpart with a dissatisfied face. In the dark inn room, her counterpart facing her was a figure completely concealing his face and body type with a large bamboo hat and a black veil.

He was a secret informant of the local Martial Alliance intelligence organization whom Jeok-sein had barely obtained after pressuring her superiors repeatedly. Feeling the need to investigate Jang Geon after seeing traces of his fist techniques, she had overextended to look into other matters as well, but the information put forth by that secret informant was terrible.

“Then what more would there be? He’s not a famous figure from the Central Plains, nor a warrior of a noble clan. Martial artists roaming the wilderness like that warrior are overflowing. The only reason his name is even on the registry is because he has a record of claiming bounties a few times.”

“No, I mean. If he’s a person who crossed over from the Central Plains, wouldn’t there be things like what province he’s from, what clan he belongs to?”

San-ho, unable to watch longer beside Jeok-sein, chimed in. However, the attitude of the secret informant whose face was invisible did not change.

“If you want to know his whereabouts before crossing over on a ship, try searching the Central Plains intelligence organizations. I’m a person whose head feels like it’s bursting just from one alliance report I have to write and submit at the end of the month. When you ask about a martial artist who isn’t an important figure, but just has peculiar fist techniques while using a sword as his main weapon, what am I supposed to do?”

“That, well. That’s true too… but still, if you hang a sign called secret informant, shouldn’t you have something…”

“The only further thing I can tell you is that the fist technique he used wasn’t Quaking Sky Palm. First of all, on the surface, his skin was intact, right? That dead bandit.”

San-ho, thinking useful talk was finally coming out, leaned his body forward and answered.

“Yes. But his internal organs were minced meat.”

“Hmm. Unlike what’s commonly known, the Imperial Army’s Quaking Sky Palm isn’t such a neat fist technique. Internal organs turning into mush is the same as the fist technique that warrior used, but Quaking Sky Palm is far more terrifying. Being struck by one blow, the qi and blood of the entire body are torn apart, and terrible bruises form across the whole body, that is the true characteristic of Quaking Sky Palm. The amount of internal energy going into that single fist is monstrous, so it’s a fist technique that only really old monsters among the Imperial Army can use.”

At the secret informant’s story, San-ho nodded his head ‘Oh’ as if hearing an interesting story. However, Jeok-sein asked her question with the same hardened face.

“What if it’s a new fist technique developed based on that Quaking Sky Palm?”

From behind the bamboo hat and cloth, a chuckling sound resounded.

“To say again, Quaking Sky Palm is a fist technique nearly discarded even within the Imperial Army because the amount of consumed internal energy is too great. On the grounds that with that internal energy, one could swing a sword a dozen times. However, because of its power, it’s classified as a Jia-rank martial art and kept under strict security. The Imperial Army turns a blind eye to it for efficiency, and Martial World sects and noble clans can’t even catch a glimpse of that fist technique, so how could it be developed?”

Leaning back against the chair’s backrest, the secret informant continued speaking.

“I understand the reason Inspector Jeok suspects him of being a secret Imperial Army expert. However, just because he is a young expert whose origin is unknown doesn’t mean he is unconditionally an undercover Imperial Army soldier. He might simply be outstanding in martial talent. Furthermore, seeing that he enjoys claiming bounties, if he helps the Martial Alliance, there’s nothing bad about it, is there?”

Thinking for a moment at his words, Jeok-sein eventually let out a light sigh and stood up from her seat. Then she extended her hand to the secret informant. Flustered for a moment, the secret informant soon realized the meaning of the hand and handed over the prepared document.

Currently on the first floor of the inn, six children kidnapped by the Red Snake Gang were eating with a combative attitude, and the real information Jeok-sein originally wanted from the secret informant was information about the places those children should return to and the human trafficking organization. What was asked about Jang Geon was merely an extra bonus asked on top.

Packing the documents, Jeok-sein and San-ho gave a light greeting to the secret informant and left the room. Now, after sending the children home, based on the information provided by the secret informant, they would crush the human trafficking organization. Because that was their job.

Sending them out, the secret informant listened to the creaking footsteps descending below, then threw off his bamboo hat.

“Whew, fuck. I felt like suffocating to death.”

The name of the man who came out from under the bamboo hat was Yang Goeng. Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead, he pulled out a sheet of paper from his breast pocket. Not very long contents were written there.

[Jang Geon. Second son of the Hunan Jang Family. Known to have shown outstanding talent in martial arts since childhood. His father, a merchant, wished for him to become an Imperial Army soldier. However, afterwards experienced unknown family strife with his family. After the strife, wandered the Central Plains before heading to the New Continent. In childhood had many martial arts teachers, but among them none above Bing-rank warrior.

Security classification: Ding-rank. Above requested information from Dark Dragon Seven.

P.S., Why are you curious about a guy like this?]

“…Damn it. Is this all? Shouldn’t they find out what that family strife was? Why is the Empire’s intelligence organization so lacking? Furthermore, security classification Ding-rank? A guy who wiped out the Red Snake Gang alone and uses pseudo Quaking Sky Palm, yet Ding-rank? Truly, whether the Imperial Family or the Martial Alliance, they’re only big in size without actual substance, without substance.”

As a Martial Alliance secret informant and a member of the New Continent Imperial Secret Intelligence Service, Dark Dragon Corps, Yang Goeng scratched his head in annoyance. And he pondered how to utilize this information to extract more operational funds from both organizations. He felt that he might need to find Jang Geon first.

He was roaming around this area inspecting the political situation and gathering information. Just like Jeok-sein, that was his job. To him, the names of the Martial Alliance and the Imperial Family were merely signboards to make work convenient.

* * *

Countless people were laughing and chatting. There were so many people that each other’s shoulders bumped, but there were so many people that there was no need to apologize one by one. And between those countless people, there were people riding large hot air balloons and cheering. However, all of them lacked color somewhere. Something appeared pale.

Looking at them, he realized that his eye level was merely at their waists. And that there was a warm hand holding his right hand.

Turning his head, he saw a woman. For some reason, a woman holding his tiny hand tightly. A face where the hardship and fatigue of life were stained despite her young age. A face displeased by too many people. A person who was clear in this somewhat pale world. Feeling the gaze looking up at her, she lowered her head. And despite getting annoyed by the overflowing crowd, she tried hard to smile for her young son.

Knowing that it was something that pleased her, he smiled back at her.

“Huh? This person is smiling?”

“He must be having a good dream.”

“Is that so? Huh? Guess not. He’s opening his eyes?”

Instinctively, Jang Geon raised his internal energy into his blurry vision. The internal energy sleeping in his dantian quickly ran at the master’s call. In his sharpened vision, Jang Geon faced two faces filling his view.

“Oh. Seeing his eyes open, he’s even more handsome. Even compared to the Central Plains people living in the lower village, he seems the best.”

“If he’s handsome? What are you going to do?”

“No, well. Just saying. Among the words Central Plains people say, there’s also a saying that good things are good, right?”

The two people bickering in front of his eyes without caring about Jang Geon were a girl and a middle-aged man. Possessing healthy brown skin, they were looking at Jang Geon with mysterious golden eyes.

“Could you give me some water?”

Talking among themselves, the two wore startled faces at Jang Geon’s sudden words.

“…He speaks our language?”

“…It seems so. And quite plausibly too.”

“I learned a few words in the past. I can’t speak the mountain range tribe language at all.”

Listening to his words, the girl smiled brightly.

“Wow! It’s my first time seeing a Central Plains person speak our language so smoothly! Do you understand everything I say?”

“…I roughly get the meaning.”

“Wow… No wonder the horse with you was smart. Because his master is like this…”

At that moment, the girl froze with her smiling face intact. And she began to turn red in an instant. She stealthily stood up from her seat. The middle-aged man looked at her and asked.

“Where are you going?”

“…I’ll bring water.”

Answering as if whispering, she went outside the tent just like that. Looking at her leaving, the middle-aged man smiled quietly, turned to Jang Geon, and spoke. It was Central Plains language.

“She seems embarrassed about calling you handsome. Usually a feisty kid, she’s surprisingly very shy.”

This time Jang Geon was slightly surprised. Because the middle-aged man’s Central Plains language was very fluent.

“…I am Jang Geon.”

“Uh-oh? Aren’t you going to ask how I speak your people’s language so well?”

As Jang Geon slightly raised his body, he realized he had taken off his upper garment, and on his pierced right shoulder, mud was thickly dried and hardened. Smelling a strong scent, it didn’t seem like ordinary mud.

“It’s been over a hundred years since the two lands knew each other. Just as I speak your people’s language, it doesn’t seem surprising that your people speak ours.”

“…That’s true as well. All the Central Plains people I met until now found it strange, so I thought you would too.”

Jang Geon carefully moved his right arm. No matter how much of a martial artist trained in martial arts he was, such a penetrating wound was a dangerous injury that could lead to crippling if careless. Added to that, poison confirmed a bit late worsened the wound. It wasn’t for nothing that he had been collapsed by the riverbank.

“Hmm. It seems you applied medicine for me. Thank you.”

Testing his arm, Jang Geon spoke as much weakened pain remained. However, the middle-aged man suddenly laughed hearty ‘Hahaha’.

“Well. Looking at you over the past two days, even without my help, it seems you would have recovered your body. Impressive recovery ability, Jang Geon. It seems ancestors are protecting you. Ah, I am called Red Wind. In your people’s way. Nice to meet you.”

Red Wind. Jang Geon could guess that he was a warrior. Perhaps he had learned martial arts. After introducing himself, he quietly watched Jang Geon inspect his wound, then spoke abruptly.

“Now my niece will come in with water soon, so I’ll ask a bit before that.”

Jang Geon raised his head and faced him. His golden eyes sparkled as if to pierce the truth.

“Are you perhaps a person being pursued?”

“No.”

“Then why were you collapsed in the valley? What about that wound? I’m sorry for prying into details, but you must help me be certain that you aren’t dangerous. If not, I’ll just state that I can do anything for the safety of the tribe.”

Jang Geon had to ponder for a moment. Explaining the past few days at length was tiring. So slowly lying back down, he spoke.

“…Everyone who would pursue me is dead, so do not worry.”

At that answer, Red Wind wore a dazed expression for a moment, then laughed ‘Wahahaha’. Looking at his hearty laugh and the figure of the girl stealthily entering again, Jang Geon thought: The natives discovered hundreds of years earlier than original history were, no matter how he thought about it, not the helpless natives he had learned about.

Looking into her golden eyes, he thought so.