Chapter 7: Chapter 7
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“Earlier, I thought he was dead.”
Leisurely riding Jojo while gazing at the distant plain, Jang Geon turned his head at the question Yi Hwan practically tossed out.
“Isn’t that right? What kind of horse sleeps with its tongue hanging out so long?”
Jang Geon snorted. Earlier when waking up in the morning, it seemed he had seen Jojo lying on the ground sleeping with his mouth open.
“He is quite a weird fella. I often get startled myself. So someday I’m going to sell him off and buy a normal horse.”
As if understanding Jang Geon’s words, Jojo snorted sourly. It was as if he too was sick of it and wanted him to hurry up and sell him.
“Doesn’t this somehow remind you of Grandpa and Gungun?”
“Gungun? That bull?”
“Yes. Gungun was also a fella who acted humanlike somewhere, right? Grandpa abused him every day.”
Yi Yun smiled as if finding the child’s memory commendable.
“It’s already been over five years since your grandfather passed away, and you remember that?”
“Of course. How fun Grandpa and Gungun were. How could I forget that?”
“…Yeah. I see.”
The reason childhood feels uniquely long is because those moments that are short to an adult feel immensely long to a child.
And Jang Geon was no exception from that.
The child began talking about episodes of the old man and the bull as if talking about things that happened yesterday.
“…So Gungun flopped onto his rear, looking at Grandpa as if telling him to cut it out…”
Just then, Jang Geon pulled Jojo’s reins and halted. Yi Yun and Yi Hwan only stopped after riding past him a bit.
Yi Yun spoke with a bewildered face.
“…We still have to go a bit further to reach the village. What is the matter?”
Jang Geon gave no answer to that question and appeared as if straining his ears for something.
Watching that, Yi Hwan muttered,
“Dirt dust is gonna get into your ears…”
Jang Geon stood back up, quickly mounted atop Jojo, and spoke:
“A whole lot of people are charging this way.”
Having spoken succinctly, before Yi Yun could even answer, he galloped his horse up the hill they had just passed.
Reaching a spot slightly higher than the surroundings, Jang Geon squinted both eyes and looked far off.
“What is charging…?”
“Over there!”
Bewildered, Yi Yun looked in the direction his son suddenly raised his hand to point. Dusty clouds were rising dimly from afar.
“What is… that…? You heard the sound coming from over there?”
Jang Geon gave no answer to Yi Yun’s question asked as if in disbelief. He merely narrowed both eyes further.
Fierce weapons held in hand or strapped to backs, and filthy grimy faces from not washing properly.
“By any chance, could they be comrades of yesterday’s bandits? If those fellas weren’t all of them…”
Jang Geon thought that might indeed be the case. Of course, then it meant those fellas already knew Gam Sundeok was dead.
Furthermore, among those bandits was a familiar face.
“That bastard…”
A fella with a bandage wrapped around his nose. The guy whose nose Jang Geon had scraped against the floor in the previous town.
“Ah, n-no. Perhaps they are just travelers going the same way. It’s too far to tell…”
Gazing at the distant specks with anxious eyes, Yi Yun offered a somewhat hopeful observation.
However, even Yi Hwan beside him felt anxiety from his trembling voice, looking up at his father with big round eyes.
Jang Geon ended up letting out a snort upon seeing those bright, intelligent eyes.
“At least they don’t seem like fellow travelers going the same way. Seeing how they hold spears and swords, it looks like a whole gang of bandits.”
“TH-Then… all those people are…!”
Roughly looking at them, the squirming specks appeared to be over thirty. Yi Yun now showed clear despair on his face.
“Then shouldn’t we go to the, to the village…?”
“With numbers like that, they’d easily sweep through any small village.”
“…Let’s just flee quickly. Since the distance is this far, we’ll be able to shake them off.”
“With you in that state? If you gallop long, your wound will burst open. You’ll be lucky if an intact needle remains.”
Despair washed over Yi Yun’s face at the negative answer. Since Jang Geon was a master, he might escape alone, but Yi Yun himself had an injured body and a young child.
Watching his expression silently, though he had thought it since first seeing him, his expressions really changed readily.
“You guys go to the village first. I’ll draw those fellas off and come slowly.”
“Huh? By yourself?”
“I was by myself yesterday too. Go ahead first.”
Yi Yun showed a flustered expression, not knowing what to do.
“Still, th-that, won’t it be dangerous? There are so many of them?”
Failing to scramble away right away even in a dangerous situation was because he was a commoner who had just crossed over from the Central Plains.
“Take the kid and go carefully. Search for a physician when you get to the village.”
Hesitating without being able to answer, Yi Yun looked at Yi Hwan hugged beside him and made up his mind.
“Why don’t you just flee? Since you’re unharmed, warrior, you can just gallop away…”
Jang Geon answered without even looking back:
“Didn’t you say you’d give me money if I delivered you? Stop hesitating and go quickly.”
“…I shall go ahead and wait. I’ll prepare lodging and meals too, so please come quickly.”
Having hesitated, Yi Yun spoke like that, turned around, and rode away somewhat faster than before.
A moment later, sensing that the Yi Yun father and son had moved sufficiently far, Jang Geon raised his head slightly.
Among those who halted their horses below the hill, a middle-aged man stepped out to the front and shouted up at Jang Geon.
“Greetings!”
Without answering, Jang Geon held the reins of snorting Jojo and looked down at him.
“I am Gam Sangcheong! May I ask a few things?”
Unlike his words, he did not wait for Jang Geon’s answer either.
“We came pursuing traces of the culprit who killed my younger brother! Right on the hill where you stand!”
The quickly shouted voice seemed to contain that middle-aged man’s rage.
“Is that younger brother’s name Gam Sundeok?”
The eyes of the middle-aged man below the hill, Gam Sangcheong, snapped wide open. The bandits standing behind him also showed surprised expressions.
“…How do you know my younger brother’s name?”
Jang Geon untied Gam Sundeok’s head bound to Jojo’s saddle and threw it down the hill.
He remained paused like that for a moment without saying a word. The bandit standing behind him carefully approached.
“…Big Brother. It seems to be Sundeok. What should we do?”
Gam Sangcheong merely stared at his real brother’s face without any answer. Just then, Jin Yangseok cautiously stepped up.
“Excuse me, Big Brothers. That bastard seems to be that guy. The bastard who ambushed my brother.”
The man who had spoken to Gam Sangcheong turned his gaze to Jang Geon upon hearing those words.
“That bastard is the one who brought down Jin Cheongseok in one strike?”
“W-Well, if it weren’t for an ambush, my brother wouldn’t have fallen so easily either. But still…”
“Losing is losing. That guy’s level was merely that much.”
“Ah, yes. Well, indeed.”
Jin Yangseok shrank back meekly. He had heard that his brother Jin Cheongseok had maintained ties through deals with the Martial Alliance branch manager, but hearing it directly like this, he realized how insignificant his brother’s existence had been.
Just then, Gam Sangcheong wrapped back the cloth he had unwrapped with cautious movements. And then he spoke to the man beside him.
“2nd Unit Leader.”
“Yes, Big Brother.”
“Don’t kill that bastard; drag him before me. I want to dig out who’s behind him and hear him beg to be killed.”
Nodding with a rigid face, the man, 2nd Unit Leader, drew his sword and roared:
“Fellas! Let’s go! Let’s avenge our dead 3rd Unit Leader and comrades!”
“WOOOOO!”
The bandits immediately galloped their horses fiercely, shouting and waving their bladed weapons in the air. At the very front, the man named 2nd Unit Leader rode while extending his longsword horizontally and cutting through the wind. That blade sparkled bluish from the internal energy embedded within.
Looking down at that from atop the hill, Jang Geon drew his sword with slow movements. Next, when he pulled the reins, the horse Jojo raised his front legs high, let out a loud whinny, and galloped down the hill. With Jojo’s inherent running speed combined with the terrain advantage of the hill, the two shot toward the bandits as if stomping to shatter the ground.
Galloping at the very front, 2nd Unit Leader sneered as he saw Jang Geon charging head-on toward him. He seemed to charge arrogantly thinking he had finished off the third, but he was the weakest warrior among their three unit leaders. Perhaps due to lacking talent, his achievement in demonic arts had been the slowest.
Dark red light glistened from 2nd Unit Leader’s two eyes. Swinging his sword, he shouted:
“Foolish bastard!”
The moment the two crossed past each other, a clanging noise rang out. And Jang Geon’s bamboo hat with its chin strap untied and 2nd Unit Leader’s severed head flew into the air.
The galloping bandits’ eyes snapped wide open. Reflected in their pupils were Jang Geon charging with a single small cut on his forehead, and 2nd Unit Leader losing his head and sliding to the ground. And before they could react or do anything, Jang Geon passed through the midst of the bandits and broke out onto the opposite side.
“…Wh-What? What is this?”
“Where is that bastard going?”
The bandits halted in bewilderment as Jang Geon, who had passed through them, kept galloping away. Gam Sangcheong, who was hugging his brother’s head, also gaped in shock at the sight of 2nd Unit Leader fallen dead, then roared at the bandits:
“You idiots! Chase that bastard!”