Hunters?

Wol-hwa’s guess was only half right. They were hunters, but the uninvited guests were a bit more special, and far more vicious.

“Walk faster, you bastards.”

“What good are you men if you’re so feeble?”

There were ten of them in total, every one with a brutish face and armed with weapons. At their front, a group of captives, tied together like a string of dried fish, staggered along.

Thwack, thwack!

“Aigoo, Big Brother!”

“We’re going, we’re going, so please just stop…”

“Hah, stop? Looks like you lot still haven’t learned your lesson.”

“Hey, go easy on them. If they break something, their price will drop. They’re so small already, we won’t even get a decent price as it is.”

“We’ll get a fair bit if we sell them to a circus troupe. Let’s hurry inside and grab a drink.”

“Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about… Hey, what’s that?”

The human traffickers’ steps came to a halt. Their eyes, which had been staring at the four-horse carriage parked in front of the shrine, slowly shifted sideways. At the end of their gaze were Wol-hwa and I.

“…Who are you?”

I stepped forward at the question from the one who appeared to be their leader.

“A passing traveler.”

“A traveler, eh? It’s dangerous to be wandering around these days.”

His gleaming eyes told me that he himself was a dangerous man. Of course, at a mere level 25, he wasn’t even a remote threat to me.

“Well now, a four-horse carriage and a stunning beauty to boot. You must be the young master of a wealthy house.”

If he had gotten closer, he would have been able to see the crest of the Taiyuan Jin Family on the carriage, but it was a pitch-black night, and the man did not possess exceptional eyesight.

“I’m not from a poor house, no.”

“My, my. You’ve been speaking quite curtly for a while now.”

The leader licked his chapped lips. It seemed he was starting to get worked up, but he hadn’t yet let his guard down around me.

“Well, whatever. We’ve been staying here for the past few days… so what are you going to do?”

“About what?”

“What do you think? Show us a little sincerity, and we might be able to give you the spot.”

“Anyone who heard you would think you owned this shrine.”

“It’s an abandoned place, so isn’t it first come, first served?”

“Then go get me a ‘real estate certificate of content’.”

“A what?”

The leader turned to his subordinates with a bewildered look. It was only natural, as it was likely the first time in his life he had ever heard the term. But there was no way any of them would know what it was.

I clicked my tongue at the men who were muttering amongst themselves about the real estate certificate.

“If you can’t prove it, then go back nicely. And release the people you’ve captured.”

“…You’re crossing a line. Are you waiting for an escorting warrior?”

“There’s no one like that.”

“Then what are you relying on?”

“Me.”

The leader’s gaze shifted to my two empty hands.

“Without a weapon?”

“For the likes of you, my fists are more than enough.”

“It seems the young master has learned a trick or two somewhere… but aren’t you looking down on the Murim too much?”

“I don’t look down on the Murim. It’s just you guys that are laughable.”

As I finished speaking and stepped toward the brightly lit torches, the captives, who had been held quietly, let out screams.

“Uh, uhhhh?”

“Uwaaah! Big Brother! Big Brother!”

“Have you bastards lost your minds? All of you, shut your mouths!”

At the captives’ intense reaction, the men behind them drew daggers and held them to their throats. The leader stared at me with a wary gaze.

“Do you know them?”

“No, first time I’ve ever seen them.”

Their reaction was so sudden that even I was taken aback. And why were they suddenly calling me Big Brother?

“Big Brotherrr! It’s me! It’s us!”

“They seem to know you.”

“They’re probably just asking for help… Huh?”

I looked closely at the captives. They were short like children and all had ugly faces. They looked familiar somehow.

‘Do they seem familiar because their build resembles a goblin’s?’

Wait a minute. Goblins?

A memory from long ago suddenly surfaced. No, actually, it wasn’t that long ago. It was something that had happened during the tutorial quest just a few months ago.

“Don’t tell me, you were with Thousand Strength?”

The captives—no, the Five Maniacs who had been subordinates of Thousand Strength—nodded their heads frantically.

“Yes, it’s us!”

“Big Brother! Please save us!”

I never thought I’d see these guys here.

As I stood there dumbfounded, Wol-hwa, who had been watching the situation from behind, asked, “Are they people you know, Young Master Jin?”

“We’re acquaintances, at least.”

Human traffickers and bandits. A combination where you couldn’t pick the lesser of two evils. I was thinking of saving them a moment ago, but now I was having second thoughts.

“Big Brotherrr!”

“Are you thinking of abandoning us?!”

“We quit being bandits and have been living good lives since that day!”

They were quick on the uptake. Then again, these were the guys who had surrendered immediately when Thousand Strength died, so what more could you expect?

“Are you going to save them?”

“Hmm. I suppose I should, for now.”

They said they turned over a new leaf after that day, so it felt wrong to just leave them. And more importantly, former bandits were much better than current human traffickers.

Just then, the leader, who had overheard our conversation, growled.

“Save them? You?”

“You heard everything, why are you asking again? You really live your life the hard way, don’t you?”

“This little brat, I’ve been letting things slide, but…!”

Ch-ch-clang!

As the leader aimed his spear, his subordinates also drew their weapons. Wol-hwa, feigning fear, clung to my side.

“Oh my, how scary. You have to protect me, okay?”

Her moist eyes, pleading expression—all calculated to evoke a protective instinct. As someone who knew Wol-hwa’s true nature, the scene was absurd, but the men swallowed hard.

“Now there’s one more reason to kill you.”

At the leader’s slimy gaze, Wol-hwa let out a shriek.

“Oh, what do I do, what do I do! I’m so scared, sir!”

“Heh heh, don’t be too frightened. Though I’ve lived a rough life, you’ll soon find that my heart is as soft as silk. Let’s have a conversation with our bodies in a little while.”

“Hey. Let me see you first.”

I need to rip that filthy mouth off so he can never spout such nonsense again.

I strode toward the man, then abruptly stopped. Seeing me, the leader laughed boisterously.

“What, getting scared now that it’s time to fight? It’s too late for that.”

“You’re right. You are in deep, deep trouble.”

“…What?”

I gave the bewildered man a wide smile.

“You’re fucked, buddy.”

The moment the words left my mouth, the ground rumbled and a powerful wind whipped through the air.

Thump—Swoooosh!

It was literally an instant.

Something shot past Wol-hwa and me at a terrifying speed and was suddenly standing in front of the leader.

“Say that again.”

Jin Mu-gyeong. An immense wave of energy erupted from his entire body, pressing down on the area. The leader, his face pale, trembled.

“M-mercy. Please…”

A cold voice replied.

“Far too late.”

Perhaps Jin Mu-gyeong was the greatest non-violent person among us. In just over ten seconds, he had ended all unnecessary fighting that was to come.

“W-we surrender, we surrender!”

“Please spare us. Please just spare our lives…”

Their faces were filled with terror. Their legs gave out and they all collapsed to the ground. The piss from one of them flowed down the hill.

The Five Maniacs were no different.

“Be quiet.”

At the single phrase Jin Mu-gyeong tossed out as he wiped the blood from his face, a deathly silence descended. Hyeok Mujin, one eye bruised black, whispered to me.

“Am I alive right now?”

“Yeah. The feeling of your breath on my ear is giving me the creeps, so back off.”

“A moment ago, I was thinking, how can I be beaten so badly? But now…” Gulp. Swallowing hard, Hyeok Mujin’s gaze was fixed on the fallen leader.

“Heuk, heuk.”

With his limbs broken and his danjeon destroyed, he was struggling to breathe. With good care, he might be able to walk again, but his life as a martial artist was over. The level window I perceived with my senses was proof.

[Lv.2 Yi Sam]

The dung flies the watchers used as familiars were level 1, I think.

The culprit who had turned a level 25 martial artist, once close to the first-rate, into a living corpse had been glancing this way for a while now.

“Squad Leader, please help me. It seems the Second Young Master is lacking blood.”

“Stop talking nonsense and move that guy to a suitable place. He’s going to die if you leave him like that.”

“Isn’t he a bastard who deserves to die? They were selling off innocent commoners.”

“Move him anyway. He’s still alive.”

One of the biggest disconnects I felt while going back and forth between Murim and the modern world was the issue of murder.

For twenty-seven years, I had lived in a society with laws and order. I had trained in the art of killing enemies with a blade, but my targets had been monsters, not living human beings.

That’s how it was, for sure…

Now, I couldn’t even remember how many I had killed. Even when I realized that the enemies who had died at my hands might have been real people and not NPCs, I didn’t feel much guilt.

They were the enemy. They were trying to kill me, too.

I wasn’t sure if it was because I had lived as a hunter or because I had gotten used to the ways of Murim. I was just surprised at my own indifference and simple self-rationalization.

For now, this should be fine.

I was living in two completely different worlds. I wasn’t in a leisurely enough situation to pretend to be some half-assed Buddhist.

Shaking off the clinging thoughts, I approached the collapsed men.

“Hic!”

“Hwaaak, save us, Big Brother!”

“You guys make a fuss even when I’m trying to save you. Hold still.”

Once I untied the ropes, the freed Five Maniacs stood up on trembling legs.

“Th-thank you.”

“We will serve you as our savior for the rest of our lives!”

“Savior, my ass. Anyway, how did you get caught by guys like these? All five of you at once.”

The Five Maniacs were small, but they were grown men. They were skilled enough to have been bandits under Thousand Strength.

“Well, we, uh.”

“……?”

What’s with these guys?

Sensing something strange in their hesitant attitude, I grabbed the collar of the nearest human trafficker and hauled him up.

“How did you catch these guys?”

“W-we caught them trying to pick our pockets in the marketplace.”

I’ll be damned. I thought they quit being bandits to take up farming or something, but they just changed professions?

“Explain yourselves.”

Under my sharp gaze, the five of them rolled their eyes back and forth.

“S-so.”

“Big Brother, for guys like us, this is all we know how to do.”

“S-still, we only just started!”

“We tried to work honestly, but things just didn’t work out… We just wanted to pull one last job and get out.”

“If we knew they were from a horse bandit group, we wouldn’t have even touched them. We’re victims too, Big Brother! Please, just forgive us this one time!”

As I was contemplating how to deal with them, a familiar word made me pause.

“What did you say?”

“If you just forgive us one more time, we’ll live honestly!”

“No, not that. What did you say about those guys?”

“Ah, are you talking about the horse bandit group, sir?”

“Yes, that.”

“We only found out after we were caught. A group of ruffians was throwing around silver at a pleasure house, so we followed them… but what do you know, they turned out to be from the Crimson Wind Brigade, notorious even among horse bandits.”

“The Crimson Wind Brigade? Are you sure?”

“Yes! I heard it with my own two ears. Right?”

The other guys started to chime in, one after another.

“They also said they were leaving as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”

“They said they had to ride without rest to get to Shanyin[1]. They were even worried their necks would be on the line if they were late.”

“Is that so.”

Meeting horse bandits two days in a row was a coincidence, but for them to be from the Crimson Wind Brigade, of all groups, was strange. And Shanyin was close to Yingxian[2], where the Hengshan Sword Sect’s main base was located.

“Is everything these guys said true?”

It was the moment the human trafficker—no, the Crimson Wind bandit whose collar I held—nodded his head, trembling.

Screee!

With a sharp cry, a falcon landed in front of the shrine. A small cylinder tied to its ankle caught my eye.

A messenger falcon.

Something about this situation feels strange.