Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Swift Regret
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It didn’t take long for Silva to regret his decision.
Less than thirty minutes later, as he gazed at the village’s able-bodied men who had been completely wiped out, he desperately wanted to deny reality from the depths of his heart.
This has to be a dream. A nightmare. He tried to believe it, but every time he pinched his arm, the pain came through vividly.
“How could something like this happen in this world….”
Silva and the villagers had been confident that even if they ran into imperial soldiers, they could easily annihilate an entire division.
Beastkin physical abilities far surpassed those of humans, after all.
But the result before their eyes was utterly different from what they’d expected.
Not a single beastkin who had charged at him with gritted teeth had even brushed Kang Jin-hyuk’s clothes.
Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t even show a hint of fatigue.
Kang Jin-hyuk leisurely waited as the beastkin sprawled on the ground slowly began to rise.
“Even in this state, your eyes say you still can’t accept it?”
“Grr…”
“That’s right! Not yet!”
As they watched their comrades collapse bleeding, a feral fire began to ignite in the beastkin.
Even if their heads knew there was no chance of victory, as long as their limbs could still move, they had no intention of stopping.
“I tried to go easy on you as much as possible, but I guess I have no choice now.”
Seeing that the fire in the beastkin’s eyes hadn’t died out at all, Kang Jin-hyuk resolved to get a bit rougher.
As long as they didn’t die, he could just heal them with the large stock of potions he’d brought.
In order to completely break the beastkin’s will to fight, Kang Jin-hyuk stood in place without moving until they charged again.
The beastkin’s rage boiled over at the sight of him openly going easy on them.
“Arrogant human!”
“I’ll kill you right now!”
The beastkin felt the same way—no mercy for the enemy.
At first, they’d planned to subdue Kang Jin-hyuk and hear him out, but now they realized that was impossible.
If they didn’t go for the kill with full sincerity, they’d be the ones suffering.
Unlike before, the beastkin now actively targeted only Kang Jin-hyuk’s vital points.
The moment Kang Jin-hyuk slightly stepped back, sharp claws narrowly grazed past his nape.
“Whoa.”
Even as the beastkin came at him murderously, Kang Jin-hyuk responded nonchalantly.
‘They’ll quiet down once they’re tired, right?’
For a while, Kang Jin-hyuk lightly deflected their reaching hands and feet, draining their strength.
But contrary to his intentions, this only stimulated their emotions more with each repetition.
That attitude, like he was dealing with children, finally made the beastkin lose it.
“You damn bastard for real!!”
The beastkin charging fiercely from the front seethed with fury from head to toe.
He poured his emotions into the attack, aiming to end Kang Jin-hyuk, but he overdid the power, making his motion too big.
“Damn…!”
It was a glaring opening even he himself noticed.
The beastkin braced for a counterattack, but all that came was a light touch.
With a light tap pushing him back, Kang Jin-hyuk flashed an infuriating grin.
“Doing such a beginner mistake—how’s that any use? Try again, properly this time.”
Not just that beastkin, but the comrades nearby flipped their lids at Kang Jin-hyuk’s words.
‘Even if I die, I’ll take this guy down!’
As if communicating by telepathy, the beastkin all hardened their resolve in unison.
“Everyone, stay calm!”
“Charging in blindly will get us nowhere!”
Now of one mind, the beastkin opted for cooperation instead of their previous reckless assaults.
Having lived together in the same village, their coordination formed quickly.
First, a few took position behind Kang Jin-hyuk, gaining a positional advantage.
“Finally using your heads a bit.”
Even with his back taken, Kang Jin-hyuk showed no tension whatsoever.
He didn’t even assume a stance, as if to say, come at me anytime.
Determined to correct that arrogance, the beastkin charged from front and back simultaneously.
Their attacks targeted head, chest, legs—every part of his body.
No amount of arm movement could block attacks coming from so many directions at once.
“It’s over!”
The beastkin believed this pincer attack would finish Kang Jin-hyuk.
But their plan only worked against opponents of similar level.
Kang Jin-hyuk’s aura-enhanced physical abilities far outstripped the beastkin’s.
He moved several times faster than their attacks, before they could even land.
At a speed invisible to the eye, Kang Jin-hyuk struck their limbs, distorting the trajectory of every attempted attack.
Then he planted a fist into the center of each beastkin’s abdomen.
“Gahk!”
“Graaak!”
To the beastkin, the flurry of Kang Jin-hyuk’s actions happened in the blink of an eye.
Nearly simultaneously flung away, they collapsed to the ground, groaning.
The beastkin who hadn’t been hit yet could only stare in shock.
Silva, in particular, felt more than anyone that there was no chance of victory.
“That’s not just raw strength. He was never an opponent we could beat from the start.”
“What are you saying at this point, Village Chief!”
“Then do you want to become slaves like this?”
If captured as slaves by humans, nothing awaited beastkin but a wretched life.
Thrown into arenas as spectacles or forcibly dragged to battlefields as arrow fodder.
Recalling the misfortunes other kin had suffered, the beastkin steeled their faltering resolve.
“No matter how strong, he’s still human!”
“If we keep pressing, we’ll find an opening eventually!”
The beastkin’s claims were little more than baseless, vague hopes.
Silva knew it, but alone, he couldn’t suppress the young ones’ spirit.
All he could do as village chief was pray no fatalities occurred.
“Was that too harsh this time? They’re not charging again.”
While the beastkin muttered among themselves, Kang Jin-hyuk yawned expansively, expressing his boredom.
As if the yawn was contagious, Lucia on the rooftop yawned so widely tears welled up.
“How long are you planning to drag this out? I’m getting bored.”
Only after hearing Lucia’s voice did Kang Jin-hyuk remember she’d been waiting for a while.
Snapping to, he realized that correcting the beastkin’s misunderstanding had devolved into toying with them.
Kang Jin-hyuk deeply reflected on his actions.
“Sorry, I’ll wrap it up now.”
Kang Jin-hyuk no longer waited for the beastkin to come.
He moved his feet first, charging toward where they were clustered.
The beastkin, discussing their next move, startled when Kang Jin-hyuk suddenly closed in.
Having grown complacent with him standing still, they couldn’t react to the surprise approach.
Every time Kang Jin-hyuk thrust a fist, beastkin fell like leaves without meaningful resistance.
Wouldn’t he tire eventually, weaken, show an opening?
The able-bodied men who’d thought that realized the truth after each punch.
It was more plausible to crack a rock with an egg.
* * *
Silva was prostrated on the ground, head bowed.
He hadn’t taken that position after being hit by Kang Jin-hyuk.
Before all the villagers got beaten, Silva had stepped forward, taking responsibility to beg Kang Jin-hyuk’s forgiveness.
“My hasty judgment led to this grave discourtesy. Please, withdraw your anger.”
Silva had thought Kang Jin-hyuk was just spouting nonsense to deceive them.
Only after witnessing his prowess did he realize how foolish that was, filling him with shame.
“You wouldn’t listen when I was talking nicely.”
“We’re truly sorry.”
“Apologizing after getting beat doesn’t really hit home.”
If they’d lacked the power, the beastkin would’ve ignored his words to the end and kept using violence.
Silva couldn’t deny that fact.
“As compensation, in addition to the promised heirloom, we’ll provide extra recompense.”
Silva figured a verbal apology alone wouldn’t convey sincerity.
So he chose material compensation.
Fortunately, it was exactly what Kang Jin-hyuk wanted.
“You’ve got some sense, at least.”
Without dragging it out, Kang Jin-hyuk handed Silva potions in exchange for the immediate show of sincerity.
Silva stared at Kang Jin-hyuk in astonishment at the large number of potions.
“Th-these are all potions?”
“You can see that. Give one to each injured villager.”
“You foresaw this from the start…?”
“No need to call it foresight.”
Kang Jin-hyuk had simply happened to have a lot of potions, so he’d beaten them down without hesitation.
But Silva interpreted it differently.
‘Kang Jin-hyuk knew he’d be misunderstood if he told the truth, so he prepared countermeasures in advance.’
That was Silva’s reconstruction of the entire incident.
‘You knew we wouldn’t believe you from the start.’
Silva recalled how, despite Kang Jin-hyuk bestowing favors and speaking truth, he’d branded him a slave trader and ordered the attack.
He felt so ashamed and guilty he wanted to crawl into a rat hole.
Despite such rudeness, Kang Jin-hyuk hadn’t taken a single villager’s life.
‘It wasn’t looking down on us—it was mercy.’
As Silva personally distributed the potions to the villagers, he shared his realizations.
The villagers, who had accepted the distorted truth, came to Kang Jin-hyuk as their wounds healed.
Without anyone leading, they prostrated themselves before him, begging forgiveness.
“We didn’t understand your intentions… We’re truly sorry!”
Over fifty beastkin bowing in unison was quite the sight.
Lucia, watching from the rooftop, spotted Kang Jin-hyuk’s dumbfounded expression and giggled.
“Here is our family’s heirloom and the village’s treasure. Please accept it.”
While the villagers bowed, Silva fetched the hidden heirloom and offered it to Kang Jin-hyuk.
As an antique-adorned box was placed in his hands, Kang Jin-hyuk’s heart raced.
What treasure could they cherish so much as a heirloom?
With eager anticipation, Kang Jin-hyuk opened the box.
The long-sealed box creaked open its stiff lid, revealing a silvery-white ore.
Upon confirming the contents visually, Kang Jin-hyuk’s mood soured.
The familiar sheen and texture of this metal closely resembled the weapon he always carried.
‘No way, right?’
His head insisted it couldn’t be, but Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t bring himself to ask Silva directly.
He feared the answer from Silva’s mouth.
“What do you think? It’s orichalcum ore we’ve cherished for centuries.”
When Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t ask, Silva volunteered the heirloom’s identity.
“Hahahaha.”
After all this hassle, to receive a lump of aluminum.
Kang Jin-hyuk let out a soulless laugh, as if losing his mind.