Chapter 29: Chapter 29

* * *

Entering the room, Seo Wi-ryang knelt on both knees and touched his son’s cheek with cautious hands. However, no warmth could be felt from the corpse whose breath had already ceased and was cooling down. There was only a cold and strangely sticky feeling, as if touching a dead animal.

He did not cry or get angry. He merely looked down at his dead son with silent eyes. Then he opened his mouth and spoke.

“…Was this something for my son to die over?”

The people in the room could not distinguish whether those words were addressed to them, or the lamentation of a father fallen into grief. Thus, no one opened their mouth and all hesitated.

Seo Wi-ryang raised his head and glared at the fellow with bandages wrapped tightly around his upper body.

“Am I not asking?”

“Y-Yes? Ah-ah! Yes! S-Sorry. I didn’t know you were speaking to me…”

At the man’s answer, Seo Wi-ryang’s face distorted.

“Say what you said earlier again. Who appeared?”

“T-That, what was it, after the ones who appeared first, later three more fellows, one with a spear, one with a bow, and one with a sword…”

“Therefore!”

The bandaged man jolted violently at the sudden roar. Seo Wi-ryang, paying no mind to such a thing, continued speaking.

“Besides the beggars who were originally supposed to appear, five more experts capable of killing my son appeared?”

Seo Wi-ryang turned the gaze that had been glaring at the bandaged man and glared at another man in the room.

“And following the tracks of the ones who fled, a river and valley appeared and the tracks vanished, so you couldn’t pursue further?”

Receiving that gaze, the man hesitated before barely answering.

“…I have no face to show.”

“No face to show? Is this something to be ended with having no face to show? Hey, Warrior Oh. Shall we speak of our original plan? From the beginning, from the cause.”

The man called Warrior Oh licked his lips at that question and brought up the topic.

“…Despite clearly giving them money to buy it, the shameless ranch owners and their families claimed an unfair transaction. And they threatened to protest against us and send a letter of complaint to the Martial Alliance.”

“Indeed. They blabbered such nonsense without even knowing grace. Even though those bastards used Son Gwang’s river water to operate their ranches in the old days. Then, when threats didn’t work, they abandoned their houses, roamed the wilderness, and transformed into evil practitioner bastards who raided my ranches and storehouses. Troublesome fellows whose stronghold was uncertain and who received protection from surrounding residents, so they couldn’t be completely wiped out.”

Warrior Oh gulped down saliva.

“T-That was why, with the plan to draw them out all at once, we intentionally leaked the transport carriage schedule and prepared this job… Operating the transport carriage first, and preparing a rear guard at a slight distance so that when the bandits appeared, we could strike in an instant and wipe them out, a simple yet effective plan.”

“Then why did completely unknown fellows appear there?”

Warrior Oh’s complexion turned pale.

“…I do not know that. The carriage operation information was certainly released only to the informant of the fellows we had already identified. U-Unless that fellow sold that information somewhere else…”

Seo Wi-ryang was about to flare up in anger again at his subordinate’s answer of not knowing, then stopped. And turning to the bandaged man, he asked.

“One fellow. The fellow who rode in the carriage with my son. Where was his corpse?”

The bandaged man, the bodyguard who was able to survive thanks to being hit in the back by Geom Jung-chan’s arrow and falling behind, worked his brain hard to answer.

“T-That fellow wasn’t there. It seems he was pulled away to open the money chest…”

“That bastard! That bastard was the informant!”

At Seo Wi-ryang’s conviction-filled words, Warrior Oh cautiously expressed a counter-opinion.

“We know where that fellow’s parents live… Unless that fellow went crazy for money and intended to abandon his parents…”

“G-Gang Sang-ju’s parents died last month. Of old age.”

At the bodyguard’s words, Warrior Oh shut his mouth, and Seo Wi-ryang shone his eyes even more filled with conviction dangerously.

“I will hold you accountable for the crime of failing to properly manage transport personnel later. For now, go find them. Do whatever it takes to find those fellows. Whether you beat all the village people to death, or cram the miner fellows into one house and set fire to it. Do whatever it takes! Bring back those dog bastards who killed my son, right now. Right now,!”

“Yes!”

Warrior Oh, the injured bodyguard, and the other swordsmen and thugs present all answered with one voice and rushed out of the room in a swarm.

Afterward, Seo Wi-ryang, left alone, appeared completely sunken. He merely stared at his son’s corpse with dimly open eyes. Sitting alone in an empty room like that, he tempered his flowing grief into boiling anger. Swearing he would surely avenge his son.

Paradoxically, that anger resembled the anger of the people who had been robbed and exploited by him. Seo Wi-ryang himself merely believed his own was more justified and intense, failing to acknowledge it.

* * *

Gang Sang-ju startled back to consciousness.

He realized both his arms and legs were tied, dumping him on the ground. Realizing he was bound, he did not move his body, merely rolling his two eyes around to check his surroundings.

Beneath the dim night sky, large and small carriages and tents erected using those carriages as walls and pillars were visible. Since it was dark and he was looking while collapsed on the ground, he could not see clearly, but those carriages and tents appeared quite numerous. Afterward, rolling his eyes frantically, he was able to discover people gathered together sitting in a huddle. They had lit a campfire on one side and sat in a circle toying with something.

Among them, someone who had been showing his back to Gang Sang-ju suddenly paused and looked back. He was Yang Goeng. Meeting Gang Sang-ju’s eyes out of nowhere, Yang Goeng smirked and spoke.

“Did you sleep well?”

Gang Sang-ju tried to answer something, then suddenly shut his mouth with a gasp. It was an expression revealing his determination not to open his mouth even by mistake.

However, Yang Goeng looked at that as if it were laughable.

“Dumbass. Acting up. Yeah, keep your mouth shut like that. I hope you do so when you die too.”

Gang Sang-ju’s expression turned odd. Right now, Yang Goeng’s words were neither conciliation nor a threat. He was simply mocking him. Something flashing through his mind, he squirmed and crawled over with his bound arms and legs. To check what was in front of Yang Goeng and the people gathered.

And in front of them, just as Gang Sang-ju thought, lay the money safe. However, it did not appear to be opened yet. Gang Sang-ju let out a sigh of relief to himself at the fact that it was not opened yet.

Yang Goeng mocked that again.

“Hey. Isn’t your brain working? Does it look to you like we’re still frantically trying to pick this at the raid site?”

Gang Sang-ju thought about the meaning of those words for a moment, then his face soon turned pale. Unlike earlier, he spoke urgently.

“W-Wait! Don’t do that! We made a deal! I-I’ll open it for you! I know how to open it! Turning that handle, ugh!”

Just then, someone stomped hard on Gang Sang-ju’s back. Surprised by that kick, he turned his head. There, holding leather straps in hand, Jin Su-yeon looked down at him with a cold face.

Without a word, she thrust those leather straps toward Gang Sang-ju’s face.

“W-Wait! What are you trying to do! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you how to open that! Opening it quickly is better for you guys, ugh!”

Seeing that, Yang Goeng spoke.

“You hid that Seo Sang-jeong was riding in the carriage, and that a rear guard was following behind. You didn’t think our deal would remain intact after that, did you?”

“N-No! Save me! Setting fire to that couple’s house was ordered from above! I didn’t want to do it either!”

When he resisted, Jin Su-yeon kicked his ribs fiercely. Then she wrapped the leather straps around his mouth, making it impossible for him to speak. Gang Sang-ju could only make ugh-ugh sounds while drooling continuously. Jin Su-yeon grabbed Gang Sang-ju’s legs, dragged him along, and tied him to a tree in a corner.

Whenever Gang Sang-ju tried to resist, she kicked his stomach and ribs hard. Judging by the force contained there, she was not a woman completely ignorant of martial arts. Thanks to that, even though Gang Sang-ju was a fellow possessing enough martial skill to perform final bodyguard duty inside the carriage, he had to tremble helplessly from those kicks.

Having thrashed Gang Sang-ju to her heart’s content and tied him tightly to a tree, Jin Su-yeon dusted off her hands and returned to the campfire.

Watching that, Yang Goeng asked.

“What do you plan to do with that fellow?”

“Kill him.”

“…How?”

“In my heart, I want to pour oil over his body and set fire to him, just like how that fellow burned Mr. and Mrs. Ho to death…”

Jin Su-yeon sat down with a thud and continued speaking.

“I can’t do the exact same deed. I will bury him.”

“…Alive?”

She looked straight at Yang Goeng and asked.

“I feel that is merciful enough.”

At that ruthless gaze, Yang Goeng forced a smirk and turned his head. There, Jang Geon was lying slantwise, sipping from a liquor bottle.

“The people here are quite ruthless. Isn’t that so, Brother Jang?”

“Vengeance is a personal matter.”

Hearing those words, Jin Su-yeon stole a glance at Jang Geon and spoke.

“…Mr. and Mrs. Ho gathered us together when we were at a loss after having our ranches stolen by Seo Wi-ryang, making us into a family. The reason we can fight him, even if awkwardly, is thanks to those two. People who had never even learned martial arts, yet were stronger than any of us.”

Staring blankly at the campfire, Jang Geon looked quietly at Jin Su-yeon at her words.

“Hmph. Becoming a family only to do evil practitioner deeds? Setting up tents in the wilderness and raiding merchant carriages?”

Just then, Gong Pyeong, who was struggling with the safe alongside Yang Goeng, grumbled and chuckled as he said so. Instantly, a chilly silence hovered among the people watching them nearby. Gong Pyeong, who had apparently spoken without much thought, struggled with a crowbar and only realized that chilliness after his brother Gong Rang tapped his arm to warn him.

“No… well… I mean, living like that seems fun too, well. That’s what I was saying…”

Gong Pyeong hastily added so and turned his eyes to the crowbar. Only Yang Goeng slowly shook his head at that action.

“…Evil practitioners. What separates evil practitioners from Martial Alliance sects anyway? Is a city and society where those with money and power wield justice as they please righteous? If their power is justice, must we just suffer exploitation beneath them without any resistance? Facing a boy coughing blood-mixed phlegm from inhaling too much dust in mines, with no food to eat tomorrow while one’s child starves, can you experience that and still call us mere evil practitioners right now? Why did our grandfathers, fathers, and mothers come to this New Continent? Because they could no longer endure such a world.”

Jin Su-yeon sat hugging her right knee before the campfire and spoke calmly like that. Gong Pyeong, who had hastily turned his eyes to the safe, spoke awkwardly as if troubled by those words.

“Ahem… well, sorry about that. I spoke a bit thoughtlessly.”

“Well, it’s fine. What we do is fundamentally banditry anyway. We merely steal from people who possess more than necessary and try to possess even more.”

At her answer, Gong Pyeong scratched his head, and when Yang Goeng toyed with the safe again with wire, hastily attached himself beside him to avoid Jin Su-yeon.

And Jang Geon remained lying slantwise, sipping from his liquor bottle again.

To what extent and how to define justice, whether justice set up by the powerful can be right for the weak as well, whether this was a weak person’s vengeance against the giant. He did not open his mouth to defend or criticize Jin Su-yeon. That was not his job. Because he was a martial artist, not a moral teacher. Such things had to be resolved by each individual finding their own answers.

Therefore, he merely raised his head and looked around their campsite.

Campfires lit here and there in the campsite, and people sitting around those campfires chatting with pleasant smiles were visible. Their clothes were worn and dusted, but at least they did not look like people buried in life’s exhaustion. Nor did they look like a bandit gang that raided any random carriage to slaughter and plunder everyone.

Jang Geon and Yang Goeng’s crew followed Jin Su-yeon’s guidance to arrive here in order to avoid the rear guard pursuing them from the raid site, and to borrow time and equipment to open the safe. Having crossed rivers and passed through valleys, they would not be easily found.

Upon arrival, Yang Goeng and the Gong brothers received thin wire and crowbars from the people here and immediately went to work opening the safe. Since the contents inside would ultimately be hard silver coins and gold bars, opening it somewhat roughly did not matter. And with that, naturally, Gang Sang-ju’s role lost its meaning.

From the stance of Yang Goeng’s crew, even in the worst-case scenario, they could just use force to break it open, so there was no reason to protect Gang Sang-ju at the cost of alienating the people here. Of course, their greed for their share, which would grow larger as he vanished, was greater.

They agreed to split the money in the safe eight to two for now. The people here agreed to take back only as much as they had lost to Seo Wi-ryang. And from that eight, Jang Geon agreed to take six, and the rest would take one each as negotiated along the way. Even Gong Pyeong, who had much anger, had no particular words regarding that ratio. Rather, his thought was that even if he didn’t score a massive haul, getting even one share just for riding hard on horseback wasn’t bad.

At any rate, with the money each stood to gain, both Yang Goeng’s crew and the people here were in a good mood. Jang Geon watched those people, then abruptly spoke to Jin Su-yeon.

“I have something to ask.”

“What is it?”

“There is an inn in Cheongsu Creek.”

“…Right. There is one.”

“There is a kid there, and when I asked, the innkeeper said she was not his mother. Saying she merely took him in temporarily because the child’s parents died.”

At those words, Jin Su-yeon hesitated for a moment, lowered her eyes, and spoke.

“…Right. That child is Mr. and Mrs. Ho’s son. Though young, he’s extremely clever and tough like his parents. Are you asking why we don’t raise him? Naturally because it’s dangerous. Raiding ranches and looting storehouses is still too early for him.”

Jang Geon did not ask further. He merely nodded his head, tipped his liquor bottle again as if he had learned roughly what he was curious about.

Just then, a dalkak sound came from Yang Goeng’s hand toying with the safe. It was a sound that occurred before a cup of tea’s time had passed since he discovered the small hole hidden by the handle ring.

“Oh! Finally!”

“Ooh! Is the gold coming out!”

Watching from nearby, people looked at Yang Goeng with eyes full of anticipation. He chuckled to himself as if enjoying that gaze for a moment, toyed with it a few more times, and spoke to Gong Pyeong.

“Done. Now use that.”

“With force?”

“The structure can’t be completely opened without a key. Still, I did as much as I could, so you’ll be able to break it open with a crowbar.”

At those words, Gong Pyeong spat on his palm, held the crowbar, and plunged it straight into the gap created in the safe. With a ting sound as the crowbar wedged into the safe’s gap, Gong Pyeong strained until his face turned red with a kkeeung sound.

And the next moment, a thung sound of iron snapping echoed from the safe, and the lid swung wide open. Watching, the people and Yang Goeng’s crew hastily poked their heads in with faces full of anticipation.

“…What’s this?”