Chapter 166: v7c16 - Stamping Foot
Volume 7 Chapter 16 – Stamping Foot
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The Fourth Young Master, Yeon Bi, thought.
One of the most frustrating things in living in the world is living together with those who do not know what is so obvious.
It was like opening one’s eyes alone in a world where everyone lived with their eyes closed, and pointing to the stars in the night sky.
It was like opening one’s ears alone in a world where everyone lived with their ears blocked, and listening to the chirping of birds.
In his childhood, the start of his speech was exceptionally late compared to other children of his age.
He did not even babble since he was young.
Whether that was due to ‘the constitution of the Tang Family he was born with’ was a subject of divided opinions even among physicians.
But his mother did not listen to their talk.
This was because Grand Madame Yak So-yu, who had personally assisted in his birth even with a body showing clear signs of illness, had spoken firmly to his mother at that time.
“Since this child is special, the start of his speech may be a little late.”
Yak So-yu had said this to his mother, who held him who was just born.
“However, when he grows just a little more, he will cling to your arms and chatter without rest like the birds chirping in the morning, so you do not have to worry.”
Hearing those words, his mother gave him the name of her favorite bird, the kingfisher (Bi).
And Yeon Bi understood and remembered all of that.
Even after becoming familiar with toddling, Yeon Bi, who could not speak, always visited Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.
In that mysterious place, there was someone who guessed his mind like an immortal in a fairy tale.
It was his eldest brother, Yeon So-hyeon.
“Bi, have you come.”
Whenever he visited, his eldest brother would take out books as always and teach him the things he was curious about.
The way to look at the world, the continents beyond the sea, the way to read people, the way to control the mind, nations and systems; there were no limits to his teachings, no boundaries, and the depth was infinite.
Those who were called scholars by the people around him at that time could not even be compared with his eldest brother.
“…Why?”
One day, just as Yak So-yu had said, the start of his speech suddenly opened.
And he realized.
It was not because he could not speak that he could not communicate with others.
Even if he spoke to them, they did not hear.
Even if he showed them, they did not see.
“Why?”
Even if he talked about and showed his eldest brother’s ‘specialness,’ there was almost no one who understood that specialness.
Rather, they only praised him, the Fourth Young Master, who was a ‘being they could understand,’ as being even greater.
That grew worse the more he talked to make his eldest brother known, and the more he tried to show him.
“I know the Lord respects the Eldest Young Master, who is your eldest brother, but the Fourth Young Master is someone who can become an even greater being.”
“This old woman’s eyes have never been wrong. The Lord was born with the qualities of a superior ruler, more so than anyone I have seen until now.”
No matter how eagerly he chattered like that, it was of no use.
He realized.
His eldest brother was a Great Peng, a giant bird roaming the vast universe above the clouds, and among people, the Great Peng was merely an animal in fantasy and myth.
So he only waited for the day when the Great Peng would descend below the clouds and show its form to the earth.
Even as days passed and passed.
And finally, that Great Peng left its ‘footprint’ here.
The footprint left by a single stamping foot.
That footprint was matchlessly bizarre.
The hard flagstones were shattered and sunken as if a whirlwind had struck them over a wide range.
Yet, that appearance was not a shape originating from destruction, but was natural, as if it had been in that shape from the very beginning.
When that footprint was engraved, there was no roar of any kind, and not a single speck of dust fluttered.
In that way, the footprint was engraved on the ground.
Now, no one present there could doubt the existence of the Great Peng.
The Fourth Young Master Bi’s gaze scanned the command tent widely.
“This area must be closed, and the water delivery must proceed here in this way.”
Elder Gwak, who was busily issuing instructions while pointing at the fire status board, was glancing at that footprint even in the midst of her busyness.
She was probably looking at it without even realizing it.
“Ah! If you organize it like this, I have to do it all over again from the beginning!”
Tang Ye-rin, who was throwing a temper while looking at the comprehensive status board she had filled, also scratched her head roughly and looked at the footprint inadvertently.
Everyone inside this tent was like that.
Everyone’s gaze brushed past the footprint inadvertently, or overtly, or out of curiosity.
“…”
Although his eldest brother had left the area for the rescue operation.
As if his eldest brother was standing in that spot, the footprint stood in for his presence.
Finally, the existence of the Great Peng was deeply engraved in everyone here.
“Muhahaha!”
It was pleasant.
It was refreshing.
Those around were bewildered by the sight of Yeon Bi suddenly bursting into wild laughter.
This was because Yeon Bi, who ‘had been issuing instructions,’ suddenly burst into laughter.
“It is nothing.”
After a moment, Yeon Bi waved his hand.
And while issuing instructions again with his mouth, he occasionally continued thoughts separate from the instructions.
“It is nothing, so do not pay attention to it.”
Yes, it was nothing.
Yeon Bi had never imagined that his eldest brother was born with a talent for internal energy, nor that he would have practiced martial arts to such a high level.
Even so, he was not surprised.
Since for the Great Peng, something like this must have been ‘nothing special.’
* * *
And here, there was someone who could not take their eyes off Yeon So-hyeon’s footprint, as if nailed to the spot.
“…”
He was the guard captain whom Yeon So-hyeon had left behind as a replacement while requisitioning the Fourth Young Master’s security force.
‘…This is.’
His gaze swept Yeon So-hyeon’s stamping foot mark as if possessed.
Looking at the mark, he searched and searched his memory.
And finally, he reached a conclusion.
‘This is unmistakable.’
He wiped the cold sweat he was shedding without realizing it.
Kneeling on one knee, he groped the footprint mark that remained like a wave on the floor.
‘This is unmistakably the Grand Patriarch’s…’
* * *
The Valley of Sin, the fire suppression site.
Gong Dam-ung, one of the Four Heroes of Hwangho, was supporting a collapsing ceiling by exerting truly herculean strength.
“Heeuuup!”
While he, who raised his internal energy of the Vajra Arhat Art to the limit, became a single pillar, the rescue team hastily dragged people out of the fire scene.
“We have rescued everyone!”
When the welcome voice was heard, Gong Dam-ung, with a loud shout, pushed the ceiling away hard and rolled his body to escape.
At the same time, the heavily burning building collapsed with a noisy sound.
“Huuu…”
Applause poured from the people toward Gong Dam-ung, who stood up while breathing a sigh of relief.
“Thank you! None of the rescued people have life-threatening injuries!”
“Brother! You are not just big in stature; you are practically a Vajra Warrior!”
“Please tell us your moniker or name at least! I will let everyone I meet know later!”
Gong Dam-ung merely exchanged greetings with a humble attitude, saying it was no big deal, without leaving even his name or moniker.
After waving goodbye and exchanging greetings with those heading to the next fire scene to extinguish the flames, he turned around.
“You did a good deed, but it was not our mission.”
A fully armed woman spoke with an expressionless face.
She was a maid of the Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment Maid Division, who was paired up with him.
“Haha. Isn’t doing good things a good thing? As a self-proclaimed chivalrous hero, I cannot just pass by a scene like that.”
Gong Dam-ung smiled, flashing his white teeth in his face blackened by soot and dust.
“You must pass by.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Although he was initially in confusion, he quickly regained his original personality upon being assigned a clear mission.
“I am sorry, but according to what I was trained, in this situation, everyone must follow control and be faithful to their assigned duties.”
The maid shook her head.
“If our patrol route gets tangled because of us, a gap will occur, and if a gap occurs, an unexpected problem will surely through that gap…”
She, who was taking steps while speaking, looked to her side, but Gong Dam-ung was not there.
It seemed he had found something else and slipped into a side path.
“Haa…”
* * *
“…ease…”
‘Hmm?’
A faint voice reached the ears of Gong Dam-ung, who had been walking with the maid.
Since he was the one who had raised his internal energy at the fire scene, it was a slender voice he could hear.
He immediately entered the alley where the voice was heard.
He saw the slums’ residents fleeing far away to escape the fire.
Among the screams and shouts they uttered, there was definitely a slender voice.
“Please save me…”
The owner of the voice, which seemed about to be cut off, was a child slumped against the alley wall.
As soon as he saw the child clad in straw mats that could hardly be called clothes, Gong Dam-ung ran toward the child reflexively.
“Get a hold of yourself!”
The child he knelt down and held did not seem to have any noticeable external injuries, but perhaps they had inhaled smoke.
“O-Over there, in the building, my younger sibling…”
Gong Dam-ung’s gaze shifted to the building the child pointed at with a trembling hand.
“Do you mean that building?!”
At that moment, a sharp whistle sound snapped Gong Dam-ung to his senses.
Piiiiii—.
“Khuk…!”
A few drops of red blood dripped from his hand, which had reflexively grabbed the blade.
It was a blade lunged by the child he had been holding.
Confirming that their blade was grabbed by Gong Dam-ung, the child spat out a harsh curse.
“Fuck…!”
At the same time, the maid who revealed herself struck the child’s head with her scabbard.
While the unconscious child rolled on the ground, Gong Dam-ung stared at the blade caught in his hand with a dazed face and muttered.
“…What is this?”
It was a crude blade, but it had been sharpened so finely that if his martial training had been shallow, the nerves in his fingers would have been severed.
“Did you forget?”
Putting the whistle hung around her neck back into her chest, the still-expressionless maid spoke.
“First rule. Never answer a slum resident’s question.”
Gong Dam-ung replied to those words without realizing it.
“I was not answering a question, but…”
“I must have told you when our team was formed at the beginning.”
Her glass-like gaze turned toward Gong Dam-ung.
“Do not contact slum residents at all.”
“…”
He, who had definitely heard this repeated several times by the maid, shut his mouth.
“Normally, they would approach in numbers acting innocent and throw various questions, and then one would stab you taking advantage of that gap, but given the current situation, they seem to have changed their method tactfully.”
“Method… you say?”
“Kill one person who maintains public order.”
The maid narrowed her eyes as she continued speaking.
“This is an initiation ritual to enter the underworld organizations of the Five Evils.”
“An initiation ritual…”
Her gaze directed toward the child rolling on the ground.
“They look like a child, but that is because they suffer from malnutrition, and their actual age must have passed the mid-teens.”
She added that it was just the right age to undergo the initiation ritual and enter the organization.
“No, if they die in the process, what use is the initiation ritual?”
She looked at Gong Dam-ung with eyes that seemed to view something strange instead.
“If they die, they die.”
“W-Wait! What are you doing right now…!”
At Gong Dam-ung’s shout, the maid, who was about to draw her sword and strike down at the child, tilted her head.
“Then are you going to keep them alive?”
“…”
Gong Dam-ung felt his breath catch at her emotionless gaze.
Could it be that even he had never stained his hands with blood while performing chivalrous acts?
But even so, to kill a teenage child in a defenseless state…
“Don’t touch my brother!”
“You murderers!”
The maid’s sword deflected the flying stones.
While a band of children threw stones, a few children took advantage of that gap to drag the fallen child.
“…Hoo.”
The maid, who pondered for a moment, sighed softly upon seeing Gong Dam-ung’s state.
“Bastards!”
He, hit directly by the flying stones, merely stared blankly at the children.
“Burn to death in the fire! You motherfuckers!”
“Fucking Sword Family bastards!”
As the children left behind curses and disappeared deeper into the alley, the maid lowered her sword and said to Gong Dam-ung.
“I believe you have learned something from this opportunity.”
Gong Dam-ung’s gaze turned downward.
“I strongly advise against contacting the slum residents in the future.”
She, who sheathed her sword, turned around and walked.
He suddenly asked toward her back.
“…How do you know this Valley of Sin so well?”
Her steps paused.
She spoke with her back turned.
“Because I also came from the Five Evils.”
Most members of the Maid Division were from the Five Evils or slums equivalent to it, like her.
“…”
Gong Dam-ung felt the deep-seated pain and hatred dwelling within her calm words.
“I am sorry. I asked something unnecessary.”
“No, it is not.”
She moved her steps.
Gong Dam-ung, who moved along with her, suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction where the child had been lying.
The drops of blood shed from his hand and the blood flowing from the head of the child who was struck on the head were dripped on the ground.
“…”
Suddenly feeling a gaze, he raised his head.
On the other side of the alley, a human-like figure was standing tall and looking at him.
He raised his visual power to confirm the opponent’s identity.
“…?!”
That shadow was looking at him with eyeballs as pitch-black as the abyss, without any whites.
The hair on his entire body stood on end.
“T-That…!”
Before he could shout anything, the shadow disappeared through the flames like a ghost.
“Is something the matter?”
“T-That is…!”
Gong Dam-ung tried to explain what he saw to the maid who returned.
However, confirming his state of being pale and unable to speak properly, the maid shook her head.
“It seems exiting from here is the priority for now.”
Her eyes sharply scanned the surroundings.
“This is currently a ‘deserted alley.’”
The rule surfaced in Gong Dam-ung’s mind.
Second: Do not mistake a path for a populated one.
At that moment, Gong Dam-ung realized.
There were no noises of various kinds that had been heard from afar until moments ago, nor any slum residents fleeing the fire; there was nothing.
Nothing at all.
“…!”
They immediately used their movement techniques to leave the alley.
Gong Dam-ung, who returned to the original patrol route, asked while shedding cold sweat.
“W-What on earth was that just now?”
“That was…”
She, who was about to answer, shoved him against the wall and hid herself as well.
“…!”
At that moment, a steel oxcart led by two roaring oxen brushed past them at a tremendous speed.
Following that, black armored carriages followed behind the oxcart like crazy.
And the Fourth Young Master’s subordinates dressed in black sprinted over the roofs of the buildings with ghost-like movement techniques, joining the Eldest Young Master’s procession.
* * *
Inside the oxcart, Head Maid Jeong-ah sent sound transmissions to all the drivers, with her golden eyes glowing eerily.
[No matter what happens, the procession must never stop!]
If the procession stopped and got stuck in a narrow alley, it would be nothing short of a tactical disaster.
“…”
On her opposite side, the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon sat cross-legged with half-closed eyes.
Gathering his qi and breath for the upcoming battle.
The procession was racing wildly toward the forward base located in the midstream of the valley.