The Road to Wuhan (3)
I had expected that going to Wuhan would inevitably lead to an encounter with her, but I never imagined it would happen here.
This was near Wuhan, but it wasn’t the kind of place you’d visit for a casual neighborhood stroll.
Besides, this was a spot where wandering alone could easily lead to running into wild beasts or martial artists from the jianghu.
She was the precious daughter of the Wulin Alliance Leader, yet here she was without any escorts—
Ah. There were escorts after all.
I quietly turned my gaze to the martial artist who had landed silently in front of her. So this was the poor escort warrior who suffered endlessly because of that directionally challenged heroine.
In the original story, his role had been to endure all sorts of hell just to protect his charge.
Because his master was so terrible with directions, he carried a sachet of tracking incense on his wrist at all times, learned techniques to follow its scent, trailed after her day and night, and even mastered the art of sleeping with his eyes open. A true escort warrior of this era.
That was precisely…
What was his name again?
“My lady, it’s late. We should head back.”
There was no need to be that wary. How dangerous could a man sitting alone and brooding possibly be?
…Well, I suppose I did look dangerous. With my large build, I probably came across as threatening.
Still, as a knight, I had no intention of harming a lady. I called across the stream to the unexpected guests to convey my intentions.
“You don’t need to concern yourselves with me. Please go about your business. Whether you’re admiring the scenery or continuing your walk, feel free.”
“...Chinese?”
“How could someone who ventures deep into the Central Plains survive if they couldn’t speak the language?”
“I suppose that’s true…?”
The Wulin Alliance Leader’s youngest daughter, Seo Ryeon, tilted her head.
Was she surprised that a Westerner could speak Chinese so fluently?
I could feel her characteristically dreamy eyes staring intently at my face, as if trying to figure out what kind of situation this was.
“Westerners really do have blond hair…”
Her gaze, brimming with curiosity, was fixed on me. More precisely, on my hair. The look in her eyes was so intense that she seemed ready to come over and touch it the moment I gave permission. But as if to block Seo Ryeon’s curiosity, the escort warrior whose name I still couldn’t recall spoke up.
“My lady, please exercise some caution.”
…That escort warrior sure had it rough. He had to chase after a young lady who wandered off and got lost at the drop of a hat.
He was probably the only escort in the world who made his charge carry a sachet of tracking incense.
“He doesn’t look like a bad person, though…?”
“The world is piled high with those who commit evil deeds while wearing the face of a virtuous man.”
She wasn’t wrong.
In this merciless medieval era, getting stabbed in the back was an everyday occurrence. The strong were crushed by those stronger, and the weak could only be exploited. Unless someone’s identity was verified, it was best to suspect them first. Otherwise you’d end up with a knife in your back and a cold corpse.
“I’ll be on my way. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time.”
It was bothersome, so I should head back quickly.
I rose from the rock and turned away. From behind me came a dreamy voice.
“You don’t have to leave because of me.”
“I was planning to return anyway.”
Now that we had crossed paths, building some rapport wouldn’t be a bad idea, but now wasn’t the time.
I turned around, returned straight to the campsite, and lay down.
Seo Ryeon, Seo Ryeon…
She was a sub-heroine in her own right.
As the daughter of the Wulin Alliance Leader she was quite popular, and her martial prowess was outstanding, as expected of the daughter of one of the strongest experts in the jianghu. Still, what left the strongest impression was her eccentric personality and terrible sense of direction.
In the original work she had some presence, but not a huge amount.
To be precise, aside from the main heroine Namgung Soso, the other heroines barely had any weight at all. Even Namgung Soso didn’t have that much screen time.
If the original had been popular enough to reach three or four hundred chapters, things might have been different. But the story had been solely focused on developing the protagonist’s narrative, so even Seo Ryeon, whom I had just met, didn’t carry much importance.
She had appeared a few times in the episodes related to the Wulin Alliance, that was all.
In fact, one could say she had become a heroine simply because she had some connection to the protagonist—an extra entry in his achievement window.
…I really hadn’t expected to meet her in a place like this.
I had assumed I would meet her only after entering the Wulin Alliance.
Considering how vast the Central Plains were, running into each other like this should have been nearly impossible. This was like the back mountain of a neighborhood, yet it was a place on the scale of Mount Jiri. The sheer difference in magnitude made the encounter feel so bizarre that it seemed like some kind of intervention.
“…Mister. What are you thinking about?”
“…When did you wake up?”
“Around the time you went to wash your hands?”
Hye-ryeong smiled brightly as she wrapped the blanket around herself.
But no blanket could conceal that violent figure of hers. I quickly pulled my gaze away from the curves visible beneath the fabric and looked at her face instead.
“You took quite a while just to wash your hands~”
“The cold water woke me up, so I was reading the manual.”
“Really? Isn’t it difficult?”
“I still don’t understand about half of it.”
“Hehe, you’ll get it as you read. Manuals are meant to be memorized completely and chewed over again and again until you understand them.”
So inject the knowledge first and comprehend it later, huh?
“Then I’ll go wash up now.”
“…There are people over there right now. Maybe go later.”
“People?”
Hye-ryeong looked at me as if I were speaking nonsense.
“A woman with gray hair came out for a walk.”
“In these remote mountains?”
Hye-ryeong turned her head toward the stream with an expression that said she had heard something incomprehensible. Then she looked back at me, startled, and spoke in a trembling voice.
“A g-ghost?”
“It’s a person.”
“B-but taking a walk in a place like this at this hour? That’s strange, isn’t it…?”
“Surprisingly, it really is a person.”
“…Um, then… Mister, can’t you come with me?”
She didn’t have to sound that desperate.
I lifted my body, which had been lying down, and nodded.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“...”
Hye-ryeong and I headed straight for the stream. By now the Wulin Alliance Leader’s youngest daughter had probably given in to her escort’s nagging and returned home.
As expected, there was no one by the water.
“M-mister, you didn’t really see a ghost, did you?”
“I told you it wasn’t.”
“C-can we go somewhere else then?”
Why was she scared of ghosts when she could cut a person’s throat without batting an eye? I chuckled at the rare sight of a frightened Hye-ryeong and nodded.
She was being cute.
“Fine. Wash up quickly.”
I turned away and stared blankly at the sky.
A faint yellow light was gradually pushing back the pitch-black night. If I waited like this, I might get to watch the dawn glow.
With such idle thoughts, I tried hard to ignore the splashing sounds coming from behind me.
It was probably just her face, hands, and feet, but hearing the sounds alone made it impossible not to notice.
“I’m done!”
It was quite some time later when Hye-ryeong finally spoke. Being a woman apparently meant washing took longer. Looking at her face, now completely free of sleepiness, I said,
“Let’s head back.”
“Yes!”
We stood side by side and returned to the campsite.
“Hehe, it’s fortunate nothing happened.”
“Indeed, Elder Baek. I was nervous the whole time, wondering if something might occur…”
As Wuhan began to appear beyond the horizon, Elder Baek and Ha Jin let out sighs of relief.
Was there really a need to worry that much?
Incidents only happened so often. They couldn’t occur that frequently.
Or could they?
Meeting Seo Ryeon was quite a big event from my perspective.
But since it had only happened to me, it was practically as if no incident had taken place.
“Mister, look over there! That’s the Wulin Alliance!”
“…It’s enormous.”
“Isn’t that basically a palace?”
Even from this great distance the Wulin Alliance stood out. Just how large was it up close? It looked like they had taken an entire village as their grounds.
As expected of China—once you had money, the scale surpassed imagination.
Indeed, the land had to be vast.
“Once we go in there, the real journey begins!”
“Yes… I suppose so.”
In other words, the real suffering was about to begin.
After all, the Wulin Alliance occupied a huge portion of this world.
Since half the story revolved around the Wulin Alliance and its surroundings, I would become far more deeply involved with the original work than before.
“I hope things go smoothly…”
“Pardon?”
“Just… it feels strange to have arrived at the center of the jianghu.”
I brushed it off appropriately and looked ahead.
I didn’t know about anything else.
In my head I organized my plans.
Well, as for the plan, the first step was already decided.
First, find the protagonist.
The only way to check the original work’s ambiguous timeline was to examine the protagonist’s condition.
Only after confirming his state could I truly formulate a plan.
If the protagonist wasn’t there…
…No.
There was no need to think such thoughts right now.
I erased the ominous imagination from my mind and took a step toward the stage of the original story.