Chapter 21: Blood Debt (3)
The day of the grand banquet hosted by the Namgung Clan.
The Tiger Pit Sect, which had received the invitation, also set out from early dawn to attend.
Two carriages loaded with gifts and one carriage carrying people,
The visiting members were Ho Yeon-am, Ho Ye-yang, and seven first-class escorts including Escort Leader Ju Ye-hwa, making a total of nine people.
Two professional drivers were assigned, and beneath them, four stable boys who assisted the drivers also followed.
However.
Among those faces, Chui was not seen.
Chui, who had been in the outhouse since early dawn claiming that his stomach ached.
“…”
Only after watching the carriage Ho Ye-yang was riding depart from atop the roof did Chui climb over the wall.
Leaving behind the empty and quiet Tiger Pit Sect, Chui crossed the mountain a step ahead to head toward the Namgung Clan.
Now it was time to act separately.
* * *
A slaughterhouse near the Namgung Clan.
Amidst numerous butchers working busily.
“Carry them quickly, you lazy butchers!”
A warrior with a sword at his waist was shouting in an arrogant manner.
His name was Ga Woo-hyeon.
He was a low-ranking warrior belonging to the Namgung Clan.
“This is beef to be used for the grand Namgung Clan’s banquet! The price of those meats is more expensive than the price of meat cut from your own flesh, so carry them carefully! And load them into the carriage quickly before they spoil!”
He only refrained from whipping, but his attitude was akin to treating slaves.
The butchers carried the large chunks of meat, watching Ga Woo-hyeon’s mood, and hung them one by one with hooks on the ceiling of the carriage’s rear space.
“Always slacking off, only pretending to work when shouted at. Lowly bastards by nature…”
Ga Woo-hyeon revealed deep hatred toward the butchers.
He was from the outside, not of the Namgung line, and had been a wanderer roaming the martial world before being specially hired by the Namgung Clan.
Ga Woo-hyeon’s pride was so great that he regarded being able to work in the Namgung Clan as his life’s achievement.
The group that everyone who lived by the blade envied and admired.
Was that not the Namgung Clan?
Therefore, Ga Woo-hyeon looked down on everyone working outside the Namgung Clan under his eyes, and thought it was only natural.
For while he was born smart and had risen to this position by making unceasing efforts without relying only on that, others were lazy, foolish, and incompetent, always living as bottom-feeders.
Thus, Ga Woo-hyeon was revealing his hatred to the butchers in front of him without filtering.
“Hey! You spaced-out guy there! What are you hesitating for! The banquet is starting soon, so carry the meat quickly!”
“S-sorry. This is too heavy…”
At Ga Woo-hyeon’s annoyance, the butchers flustered.
“What is it?”
Ga Woo-hyeon walked inside the slaughterhouse.
Then, beyond the butchers standing with troubled expressions, a large animal corpse was visible.
A wolf. A wolf so giant that one might wonder if it was a tiger lay dead on the floor of the slaughterhouse.
Beside it, a small wolf that was clearly a cub lay dead together.
“Hmm. It is the sacrifice to be used for the blood oath ritual. This one must not be drained of blood, but maintained exactly as it was right after death. Did you manage it that way?”
“Of course. It is a task directly entrusted by the Northern Palace Court of the great Namgung Clan. We paid special attention.”
“I get it, so hurry up and load it onto the carriage. Didn’t I say there is no time!”
Ga Woo-hyeon’s irritability continued to worsen.
The butchers hurriedly began to cater to his whims.
Muttering in low voices was all they could do.
“That crazy bastard. Is he going to draw his sword again like that?”
“Didn’t Choon-shik get his finger cut off before for ignoring that bastard’s words?”
“He’s still a rogue bastard. A motherless and fatherless son of a bitch, *spit*!”
“Anyway, the swordsmen belonging to the Namgung Clan’s Northern Palace Court are all out of their minds without exception.”
Just then, Ga Woo-hyeon gestured toward a butcher.
“…Hey, you.”
Ga Woo-hyeon crooked his finger toward the butcher who appeared to be at least twenty years older than him.
“What is that wolf over there?”
“Yes? Ah, that is a wolf cub. It seems to be the cub of this large one… it came in together when it was brought.”
“Load that one too.”
“Understood.”
The butcher winked to the side.
At that, a short boy who appeared to be the butcher’s son rushed over and slung the wolf cub’s corpse over his shoulder.
Just then.
“Uh-oh!?”
Was it because the wolf cub was heavy?
The butcher’s son ended up losing his footing and bumped his body against the hem of Ga Woo-hyeon’s robe as he stood still.
In an instant, Ga Woo-hyeon’s expression distorted terrifyingly.
“You damn trash, how dare you smear animal stench on my robe?!”
Before the boy could even apologize, Ga Woo-hyeon’s kick flew in.
Thwack!
Kicked by Ga Woo-hyeon’s foot, the boy flew far and rolled.
The boy fainted, with several of his teeth broken.
At that, the butcher who appeared to be the father hugged the boy and was shocked.
“Oh, oh my, Milord! He is still a young child!”
“So? You got a problem?”
Ga Woo-hyeon smirked, looking down at the butcher father and son.
And he scoffed openly at the butcher’s trembling fist.
“Oh? You want to hit me? As expected of an ignorant butcher. Go ahead and try. See what happens. Hahaha—”
Although he was only a third-class warrior guarding the front gate of the Namgung Clan, to ordinary people who did not know martial arts, he was no different from a god.
“Do it, you bastard. Are you just going to look at the guy who kicked your kid? Hmm?”
Ga Woo-hyeon sneered, poking the butcher’s chest with his sword in its scabbard.
Right at that moment.
“Milord. All the meat is loaded.”
An old butcher nearby reported while watching his mood.
Only then did Ga Woo-hyeon turn his head.
“There wouldn’t be anything like cutting off some flesh and pocketing it, right?”
“Oh dear! Do not say such things. How could we dare…”
“If such a thing is detected, you know it, right? I will cut off twice as much of your flesh. Understood?”
“How could there be any doubt.”
The butchers flustered and bowed their heads.
Ga Woo-hyeon only then cleared his throat and walked out of the slaughterhouse.
He patted the shoulder of the old butcher standing politely beside the carriage and said.
“The reason I come to the site and throw a fit like this is because this is the only way you guys will work even slightly faster. If you want to send me off quickly, shouldn’t you finish the work quickly too? You understand, don’t you?”
“Of course, Milord. We deserve to be cursed at.”
“Right, right. I like that you know your place, Old Master. Well then, shall I go?”
Ga Woo-hyeon patted the old butcher’s cheek a few times with his palm and got into the carriage.
Soon, the carriage loaded with meat moved.
Toward the Namgung Clan, where a grand banquet would soon be held.
* * *
Rattle— rattle— rattle—
The carriage moved up and down as it ran along the mountain path.
Ga Woo-hyeon was yawning as he drove the horse.
“Indeed, to deliver meat at my rank. What kind of situation is this, without even a single driver. Phew…”
Hands are always short during the grand banquet.
Usually, he only had to guard the gate, but when it was this busy, he sometimes had to take on chore duties too.
Ga Woo-hyeon whipped the horse with a bored expression.
For only if he returned to the clan quickly could he squeeze into even the lowest seat of the feast and taste the wine.
At that very moment.
Scratch—
An odd sound was heard from behind the carriage.
At first, he thought it was just a noise that would occur once and stop.
Scratch— scratch—
The strange sound was occurring continuously and repeatedly.
It was a noise as if something was scratching the wall with fingernails.
Scratch— scratch— scratch—
In the end, Ga Woo-hyeon stopped the carriage in the middle of a deserted mountain path.
“What is it? Did a wild dog get inside?”
Ga Woo-hyeon got off the carriage in annoyance.
Then he went to the back of the carriage, opened the rear door, and looked inside.
The inside of the carriage was spacious and dark.
Butchered chunks of meat were hung in clusters from the ceiling with hooks, and cold air flowed between them.
“Let’s see. Where is the wild dog?”
Ga Woo-hyeon went inside the carriage, pushing aside the meats hanging from the ceiling.
Just then.
Rustle—
From deep inside, the sound of something moving was heard.
Ga Woo-hyeon shouted, thinking “Aha!”
“Found you, you son of a bitch!”
And at that very moment.
…Chrrr!
A wire noose caught onto Ga Woo-hyeon’s neck.
“Kh-kuh!?”
At the noose suddenly pulling him upward violently, Ga Woo-hyeon roughly exhaled the breath that was cut off while inhaling.
Tight…
The wire dug fiercely into the skin of his neck.
The noose wrapped around the iron pillar above tightly strangled Ga Woo-hyeon’s neck and pulled him upward at the same time.
Eventually, something walked out from between the hanging chunks of meat.
“The dog is you.”
A pair of crimson pupils fell before Ga Woo-hyeon.
Chui. He was quietly looking up at Ga Woo-hyeon’s face.
“Kuh! Ke-hehk! Kkeuh!”
Ga Woo-hyeon flailed, but the more he did, the tighter the noose strangled him.
Chui exerted force in the hand holding the opposite side of the wire noose and pulled it.
The noose, flowing with red internal energy, tightened to the limit.
To Ga Woo-hyeon, who was trembling with his tongue sticking out, Chui said.
“I am curious about the internal layout of the Namgung Clan’s estate.”
At the same time, the noose loosened just a tiny bit.
Eventually, Ga Woo-hyeon opened his mouth.
“Fuck… off, you fucker… do you think I’ll tell you?”
At that, Chui nodded as if he had expected it.
“You don’t particularly have to speak.”
?
The instant Ga Woo-hyeon tried to reply, the noose squeezed shut once again.
Flail, flail—
Ga Woo-hyeon struggled even more violently than before.
It was natural, since the sweetness of air he had tasted for a brief moment was instantly stripped away again.
‘I’ll speak! I’ll speak!’
An unmistakable light of regret was emanating from his eyes, but… it was already too late.
“A dead man is more honest than a living one.”
For Chui had already decided to turn Ga Woo-hyeon into a spear ghost and order him around.
Eventually.
…Snap! Crack!
Ga Woo-hyeon’s neck, wrapped in the wire, was snapped sideways.
With this, the chunks of meat hanging in the carriage’s cargo space increased by one.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost